THE CD: “Broken Boy Soldiers” (Third Man/V2)
PERFORMER: The Raconteurs (a.k.a. the Saboteurs)
WEBSITE: Click here.
SUGGESTED TRACKS: “Blue Veins,” “Broken Boy Solder,” “Steady, As She Goes,” “Level”
YOU’LL LIKE IT IF:: any album by indie-rock heroes has you marking your calendar.

The Raconteurs boast a lineup worthy of buying expensive panties just to throw them: Jack White of the White Stripes (insert pubescent shriek); Detroit pop-smith Brendan Benson, and the neo-blues Greenhornes. Yet somehow the recently-released fruit of this fertile orchard, “Broken Boy Soldiers,” yields several sweet moments, but falls criminally short of the juicy experience it could have been.

A cold war divides the supergroup’s catalog — songs swing either White or Benson (the Greenhornes, sans frontman Craig Fox, play neutral but solid backup). Not in a tense, horn-locking way. “Soldiers” feels compromised as if neither side wanted to overshadow the other, which could have easily happened.

White and Benson both come from Detroit, but musically they hail from opposite ends of the sonic universe. Benson reportedly hates being described as “power pop,” but how else does one peg a man citing the Cars and Electric Light Orchestra as among his influences? Enough said.

White, on the other hand, comes to us via the screeching, gritty, beating-the-crap-out-of-other-bands highway from Hell, a road paved by numerous hooligans of rock. Granted, he more than waxed pop on the Stripes’ 2005 album, “Get Behind Me Satan,” and played nice on Loretta Lynn’s brilliant 2004 album, “Van Lear Rose.”

But Jack’s softer side whimpers in the corner on most of his Raconteurs contributions. Songs such as the squealing, psychedelic march of “Broken Boy Solder” and the smoky, wailing depression of “Blue Veins” smack of classic Jack (hear 1999’s “White Stripes“).

Yet most of the time, White’s tunes run up against the enchanting, bubble-gum drone of Benson’s cuts such as “Together” and “Yellow Sun.” Goodbye flow, goodbye congruity. Nice knowing you. A good album, yes. But “Soldiers” differs so much from one song to the next why did Benson and White bother to record together?

Here’s why. White’s hard style occasionally loves-up just right on Benson’s softer sound to spawn little cuties such as “Steady, As She Goes” and “Level,” songs with daddy Jack’s dirty rock and daddy Brendan’s pop good looks. With the charming purity and seductive naughtiness of a corrupted choir girl, these songs reveal the true Raconteurs. Here’s hoping Benson and White get a little more frisky next time.

–by Morgan Kelly

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