The Raconteurs

The Raconteurs join Radiohead and NIN in throwing their weight in front of sluggish record companies with their second album, rushing its release only a couple of weeks after its completion. It's a move that minimizes leaks but also jukes any sales-impeding critical disapproval. The latter point, however, can be put to rest: from the first skronky strut of the album's title cut to "Hold Up" and "Rich Kid Blues," it boogies, shrieks and flails with a level of down-home rock stank (the good kind) never before imagined by the super-group.

What separates the blues greats from the legends? A good story. And Jack White knows
how to tell one. (Did you hear the one about the guitarist who married his sister?) It's no
coincidence that his side band is called the Raconteurs: "When you call yourself a
musician," the White Stripes leader said when he teamed up with singer-songwriter
Brendan Benson, bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler in 2005, "y... More >