Review Summary: Broken Boy Soldiers is surprisingly good, but the ending is lacking. Could be better, but what couldn't be better.
When I first heard about a band called The Raconteurs I had mixed feelings. I like Jack White and Brendan Benson’s solo career, but I didn’t think for some reason that they wouldn’t sound good together. Then one day I went to a garage sale and bought this for 2 dollars. They definitely proved me wrong! Broken Boy Soldiers, to me, is an amazing album. I like basically every song on it, except for the last three
Broken Boy Soldiers starts off with their first single, “Steady as She
Goes”. An addicting song, that starts off with each of the Raconteurs playing their instrument one by one. Then comes some simple but effective lyrics. . After that the CD rolls right into “Hands”. This song is one of my favorites (Probably because it’s sung by Brendan) Really not much to say about this song, other than they talk about hands, and eyes and other parts of the body that normally aren’t sung about. After this comes the freaky (Can’t think of a better way to describe it) “Broken Boy Soldiers”. It starts put with some instrument, like a violin, and then it rolls right into Jack White’s high pitched, strange singing, with equally strange lyrics. After that comes one of my least favorite tracks, Intimate Secretary. To me the lyrics remind me of filler. Just simple rhyming. It has a 1:10 intro with no singing, and the song clocks in at 3:10
Then comes the middle of the CD, starting with Together, one of the slower songs. Good lyrics, but I think it should be faster. Up next is in my opinion the best song on the album, Level. Starts out with Jack and Brendan taking turns saying some weird gibberish, then it rolls into a good guitar riff, and eventually a solo. It was actually this song that got me to listen to the rest of this CD. Then comes Store Bought Bones. I love the way they mixed Brendan and Jack’s voice on this song. Store bought bones also has a good keyboard entry, and a cool solo. But after a good song, of course comes my least favorite song.
The beginning of the end is Yellow Sun. It has good lyrics, but the way the song is presented I don’t like. Another slow song, “Call it a day” is a good song , but I still can’t figure out why I like it. It is just like Yellow Day, but I like this one. The background vocals are kind of annoying though. Blue Veins is another song that I wished they would of let off of the CD. When I think of this song I think of turning back to the beginning.
Broken Boy Soldiers is a good album for a casual listener, but the ending isn’t anywhere as near as good as the beginning/middle. It would be rated higher but the ending ruined it for me.
Recommended downloads:
Steady as She goes
Hands
Together
Level
Blue Veins(If you're a blues fans)
4/5
