If you have heard the single Steady as She Goes it gives you a fairly good idea of what to expect from The Raconteurs debut album. Jack White and Brendan Benson team up with The Green Horns rhythm section to produce a very competent blues rock throwback to the seventies album.
Both White and Benson are of course prolific songwriters and here each trade songs and vocals on all 10 tracks. Whites distinctive wide eyed blues howl has been toned down and sometimes its hard to work out who’s actually singing, but on the fabulously bluesy Blue Veins, complete with backwards samples, or the grunge funk of Level, there’s no confusing his vocal touch or too his incendiary guitar playing, when required, especially on the rollicking Store Brought Bones or Hands.
All in all it’s not a Jack White album but a joint effort and a worthy one at that, it’ll probably be a massive hit due to Whites connection and I’d recommend it as a nice alternative soundtrack to the summer
Nelson Bibb