Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

What Mika's Life in Cartoon Motion was to candy-coated pop, the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely is to blues-inflected rock. While there is a beating heart identifiable at the center, Jack White, Brendan Benson and company gleefully infuse their second album with exuberant touches ripped from sources as varied as mariachi horns, folk fiddles, and majestic pop piano chords. The album may threaten to blow apart under its own weight at times, but it's more likely to inspire awe as the brazen, colorful patchwork of Consolers of the Lonely unfolds.

According to the band, the Raconteurs began when the White Stripes' Jack White and indie soloist Brendan Benson got together to write the exuberant pop-rock of "Steady As She Goes." The result was a single that hit the UK pop top 10, #1 on the modern rock chart in the US, and earned a Grammy nomination. Many suspected that Broken Boy Soldiers, the album built around this indie-oriented supergroup, was a one-time project. However, with very little advance warning, the Raconteurs have roared back into the spotlight with Consolers of the Lonely, an album significantly more confident and wide-ranging than Broken Boy Soldiers.

A heavy dose of rock joy practically leaps from the various grooves here. It's hard to imagine the Raconteurs going away anytime soon, and Cosolers of the Lonely offers 14 songs that impressively argue for them to stay.

The trio of "The Switch and the Spur," "Hold Up," and "Top Yourself" lie at the musical center of Consolers of the Lonely. All 3 are massive, epic song constructions that show off multiple perspectives on the fertile creative genius of the Raconteurs in all its glory.

"The Switch and the Spur" is a spaghetti western in song. Massive mariachi horn figures give the tune a grandiosity that would make Sergio Leone proud. It's an exercise in musical excess, but without a hint of ego to spoil the party.

"Hold Up" is a raucous showcase for the band's awe-inspiring guitar pyrotechnics. The breakneck energy throws you smack in the middle of the chaotic party.

"Top Yourself" initially feels like the gentler come down from the intensity of the two previous songs. However, its bluesy feel ultimately is just as powerful as the guitar chords move the gut.

• "The Switch and the Spur"
• "Hold Up"
• "Top Yourself"
• "Rich Kid Blues"
• "Carolina Drama"

The Raconteurs throw down the gauntlet here setting the standard for this year's other major rock releases to match. Few other bands so effortlessly sound in control of such a wide range of creative elements in their music. Ethereal, tinkling piano and chorus comes out of nowhere to break down the story without a point of "Carolina Drama." The punkish fire of "Five on the Five" would not be out of place on a White Stripes album. "Rich Kid Blues" is centered on the sound of classic rock ballads, but tonsil-shredding vocals and organ lift the song to another plane.

Consolers of the Lonely is far from a finely honed, easily coherent whole. However, if you revel in freewheeling displays of noisy pop-rock ingenuity, this album is certainly for you.