The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers (XL)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Time travel - they'll have you believe it's impossible, or at least inadvisable. 'Broken Boy Soldiers' exists to neutralise both such doubts. For thirty three minutes, it really can be the seventies, super-groups can roam the earth claiming dominion as the dinosaurs once did and four chord rock and/or roll lays a strong claim to the airwaves as the world taps its feet in approval.
They've obeyed the most paramount rule of time travel too - the one about not touching anything (the consequences always involve your mum becoming your girlfriend, or some such). Guitar rock here exists exactly as it did thirty years ago, untainted by the technology or techniques of the twenty first century. All it possesses of the present is the bodily form of its makers, the White Stripes' Jack White accompanied by Brendan Benson and two members of The Greenhornes, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler making up the rhythm section. The spirits they channel however are of days gone by. Not in the sense of Jet's uninformed pillaging of the past or The Strokes owing a certain debt to the Velvet Underground - the attention to detail here is remarkable. This lot started taking notes on the records of their time as soon as they were out of the womb.
Detroit's answer to 'Nevermind'? It was never going to live up to Jack's charmingly hyperbolic claim. It's Detroit's answer to the current guitar circuit, reminding us that so much of it has been done decades prior, and with much more style. Lead track 'Steady, As She Goes' is such an exercise in American FM rock music that it should by all rights already have a place each hour on classic rawk stations the globe over, the quadruplet of chords and infectious vocal hooks might well need until the hundredth listen before they become loveable rather than forgettable, but once under the skin no amount of itching is about to displace them. The rest of the album jets through The Beatles ('Hands'), Led Zeppelin on its title track and even the dreaded Clapton ('Together', which actually sounds better than that boring old fella's managed in a good few decades) amongst others, each visit to a different ghost painting the most delicate, intricate and accurate portrait of whichever ghoul their gaze decides to fix upon.
It's both unashamedly and unavoidably retro, but what carries it is how much enjoyment has been transferred in to the recording. Despite containing all original songs, there's the same feeling of fun about it that would come from being in a covers band (albeit the most talented covers band in the world) - getting to play the music you love with people you admire and whose company you thrive in.
As every instalment of 'Back to the Future' proved, time travel only leads to trouble, as inevitably it becomes harnessed by the rich wanting to get richer, and as much as we can't stress the worth of 'Broken Boy Soldiers' enough, if this association is to continue, we can't help but hope they look a little further forward in the history books for inspiration in records to come. In Benson and White, we have paired two of the most important musicians of our generation. Now it's time for them to really show off.
Artists in this article: The Raconteurs
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