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It’s official ladies and gentlemen; we have the first nomination for album of the year. That honor belongs to The Raconteurs for their release, “Consolers of the Lonely.” This super group had an outstanding debut album, but this one takes to another level. This album has also been able to convince me that Jack White is the most important musician to this past decade. I am not even close to downplaying Brandon Benson’s involvement in this album, but Jack White just can’t seem to be involved in a project that is not associated with mass success.

“Consolers of the Lonely” opens with the title track and I promise you, you are not going to be able to get this song out of your head. The guitar riff in the beginning and at the chorus is awesome. After one listen I knew I was going to eventually learn how to play it. The following track, “Solute Your Solution” keeps the high energy flowing. It also provides a nice lead in to one of my favorites “You Don’t Understand Me.” The lyrics are outstanding and the piano solo is very cool. The following track “Old Enough” has a violin and a country feel. Usually that would be a recipe for disaster, but the call and answer vocals and percussion really bring it together. “Top Yourself” has a hardcore White Stripes feel to it. Which isn’t even close to a bad thing. Benson takes the front of the stage on “Many Shades of Black.” Besides his incredible belting vocals, the song features a pretty cool trumpet line. Towards the end of the album White and Benson show their ability to write some pretty cool story telling songs. “Rich Kids Blues” is has really funny lyrics but they manage to keep the song very serious sounding. “Carolina Drama,” the album’s closer, is clearly the best song on the album. White narrates a story about a boy Billy, his mother, stepfather, and a priest. The stepfather is abusive and beats up and kills a priest who turns out to be Billy’s father while the mother sat in tears. In the end Billy takes a stand and kills his stepfather. However, the story doesn’t seemingly end with the last line being “If you must know the truth about the tale/Go and ask the milk man.” All I’m saying is that if the song doesn’t give you chills then you’re crazy.

Having given the world only one weeks notice on the release date of the album, you had to assume that this was going to be an outstanding album. I really can’t find a single flaw in the whole album. I am going to go out and say that this one is an instant classic. I hope these guys stay together and keep evolving as time goes on. “Consolers of the Lonely” easily gets a 10.

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