Help Us Stranger
“It was baby steps—we didn’t say, hey, we’re going to make an album or go on tour,” The Raconteurs co-frontman Jack White explains to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “We just thought, let’s get together and record a couple of songs and see how that goes.” The time felt right for White and Brendan Benson to reconnect following a series of jam sessions with drummer Patrick Keeler, something they hadn’t done in over a decade due to their commitments to other projects. During that time, White pursued his solo career and formed The Dead Weather with Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence, all while running Third Man Records; Benson launched his own record label and released 2012’s *What Kind of World* and 2013’s *You Were Right*. Though their third album touches on the power-pop stomp of *Broken Boy Soldiers* and the country-folk of *Consolers of the Lonely*, the band now seems to have one mission in mind: Play some good ol’ fashioned classic rock that pays homage to their musical roots. White and Benson are both based in Nashville now, but their native Michigan is never far from their hearts. “Well, I’m Detroit born and raised/But these days, I’m living with another,” White and Benson harmonize on the single “Bored and Razed.” The guitars nod to pioneering Michigan bands like Grand Funk Railroad and The Amboy Dukes, while the scuzzy, frantic Stooges-like garage rock of “Don’t Bother Me” features White, unsurprisingly, imploring you to put down your damn phone. But *Help Us Stranger* is not just strut and swagger: From reflective folk rock (“Only Child”) and piano balladry (“Shine the Light on Me”) to heartbreaking blues (“Now That You’re Gone”), White and Benson keep it fresh with their engaging, mood-shifting songwriting. They sound like they’re genuinely having fun, happy that they’re still together after all these years. “We played a show in London with The Strokes, and what struck me was, \'Ah, it’s so great to see any band have the original members they started with even three years later, let alone 15, 20 years later,\'” says White. “Everyone’s for the same goal of trying to make some sort of music happen that didn’t exist before. But the proof is, those same people are in the room together.”
After an 11-year hiatus, the first album from Jack White’s other other band floats in weightless, haughty bliss through a perpetual 2008.
The NME review of Jack White and Brendan Benson's supergroup The Raconteurs' long-awaited third album 'Help Us Stranger'
David Fricke reviews the Black Keys' 'Let's Rock' and the Raconteurs' 'Help Us Stranger' albums.
The thrilling energy on The Raconteurs’ first album in 11 years was worth waiting for, while Hot Chip’s colourful record A Bath Full of Ecstasy is their best to date
Reconvening after a decade's absence, the Raconteurs resemble nothing less than a guild of craftsman united by taste and work ethic on their third album, Help Us Stranger.
Jack White is coming off of the weirdest album of his career, last year's solo effort Boarding House Reach, so Help Us Stranger marks his re...
Always Jack White’s most melodic project, his partnership with Brendan Benson’s bubblegum pop and the Greenhornes rhythm section makes for a
THE RACONTEURS burst on to the hard rock scene with 2006's "Broken Boy Soldiers", a pivotal moment for co-founder Jack White. Just one year later, the final WHITE STRIPES album was released. While this turning point for White is obvious viewing things in the rearview mirror, THE RACONTEURS initially...
The album proves that there’s still more to be mined from the supposedly anachronistic guitar-rock template.
The next time your cranky, baby boomer uncle bitches about the lack of good rock music being made these days, you can throw him a copy of Help Us Stranger...
'Help Us Stranger' by The Raconteurs, album review by Leslie Chu. The quatet's forthcoming release lands on June 20th via Third Man Records
Jack White’s eccentricity is well contained by his bandmates, but the macho politics undermine the tautness <strong></strong>
Jack White is capable of inflicting more compelling strangeness than we get here.