All Hail the Rockfather!

There can be only one.

Jack White is the Rockfather. Yes, capital letters are necessary. The Rockfather is the one living person most responsible with moving the genre forward. So go ahead and print the 8x10, hang it in your garage, and salute it every time you walk by because Jack White is the most important living person to rock & roll.

What does that mean? It means you need to pay attention to everything he does including side action like The Raconteurs? Why? Because Jack White with The Raconteurs is like Kobe Bryant playing hoops in Europe—it doesn’t matter what 4 guys you stick with him, they’re always a threat to win the game and you need to watch because something special just might happen.

Consolers of the Lonely starts with the familiar spaghetti western rock that White has been favoring with the Stripes. Track one “Consoler of the Lonely” is like a shootout between Brendan Benson and White. Benson plays the straight Wyatt Earp role, allowing White to stagger in around the one fifteen minute mark slinging his drill bit guitar, manic vocal, as if to say “I’m your Huckleberry” Doc Holiday style. You don’t get to hear many showdown songs and “Consoler of the Lonely” is a great starter as the pace shifts between characters while allowing White to eventually win the draw with a sick solo towards the end.

“Salute Your Solution” starts with a massive riff that would be at home on everything from classic rock to ESPN’s Ultimate Highlight. White keeps speaking in tongues holding his hands in the air as if to say, “I can’t help myself.” “Salute your Solution” sounds like an Icky Thump outtake and is sure to excite Stripes fans as they lean into what is fast becoming the signature guitar sound of this decade.

I don’t mean to short shift Benson. Cleary White spends time with him because he too is a bona fide freak with tremendous vocal range capable of sounding like everyone from Robert Plant to Bono to Freddy Mercury. Benson even puts together a rock piano solo on “You Don’t Understand Me.” But I can’t help but wonder if White is speaking to Benson (and the rest of rock & roll for that matter) when he taunts on “Top Yourself” asking, “How you gonna top yourself when there is nobody else? How you gonna do it by yourself because I’m not going to be here to help you?” It’s as if White is acknowledging The Raconteurs experiment might soon dry up as he has bigger fish to fry. What’s clear on Consolers of the Lonely is the songs that place White front and center are where the good stuff happens.

What’s great about The Racanteurs record is there is so much in here. It’s clear this side project is all about liberation and the result is most tracks contain a little glimmer of something special. It’s things like the steamy Almond-Brother-from-another-Mother guitar riff towards the end of “Old Enough,” the trash talk of “Top Yourself,” the breakneck pace of “Five on the Five,” and the new distortion pedal of “Attention” that make The Raconteurs a must buy every time they kick something out. Said another way it’s perfectly fine to eat stuff out of the trash as long as it’s Jack White’s garbage your digging in.

Overall there aren’t a ton of singles or mix tape worthy songs on Consolers of the Lonely. “Consoler of the Lonely” might be the best track just for its swinging saloon door drama. The standout tracks on Consolers of the Lonely sound like the less memorable songs on Icky Thump (a high bar by the way). But Jack White is to rock & roll right now as Tiger Woods is to golf. Until someone steps up to push him, we can only hope he challenges himself making extracurriculars like The Raconteurs worth purchase just to see where The Rockfather plans to take us next.