The Raconteurs “Consolers of the Lonely” 2008/2018. Third Man Records, Vault Package #38 10 year anniversary special edition on copper foil metallic vinyl.

As with most Vault subscription packages, this one comes loaded with a bunch of extras: four large and slick photos of the band members, a “R” insignia embroidered patch (“for your rocker jean jacket”), four silver stickers of artwork from the album and a 45″ single of two new Raconteur songs, “Now That You’re Gone” and “Sunday Driver” (which I’ll review in another post).

When the album first dropped in 2008, it was the band’s second LP and, mostly, a complete surprise to the public (though it was accidentally leaked a little early on iTunes) as the band had only finished recording it a couple of weeks prior to its release. It hit #7 in the US and #8 in the UK, receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album and winning the Best Engineered Non-Classical album category. Consolers of the Lonely is big music on a big double album: power chords and riffs, horns, organ, piano, strings, a banjo, stylophone and clavinet for goodness’ sake. An album Allmusic describes as a “bubbling blend of bizarro blues, rustic progressive rock, fractured pop, and bludgeoning guitars.” Some of my favorite tracks have pretty much all of those things – “The Switch and the Spur,” “Hold Up,” “Attention” and the Zeppelin-esque “These Stones Will Shout.”  I also really like the laid-back vibe of the slide-guitar heavy “Top Yourself.” I’m not as crazy about the country-twinged and twanged, old-time saloony “Pull This Blanket Off” and the 80′s hair-metal-power-ballad-meets-Queen-rock-opera “Rich Kid Blues” is both awesome and weird and I can’t decide if I love it or not. The Raconteurs released four singles from Consolers of the Lonely. The first they released the same day as the album, “Salute Your Solution” which went to #4 on Billboard’s Rock Songs chart. The second single was “Many Shades of Black” which went to #37 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and had a version performed by Adele. The last two singles, “Old Enough” and “Consoler of the Lonely” did not chart (at least I don’t think so).