Feels like it’s been ages since I last wrote about a Raconteurs song. Actually, it was only a few months ago. But I was thinking that it was even before they had released their most recent album, which is already almost four years old. I listened through Help Us Stranger once. I think once was all I needed, it didn’t leave much of an impression. Nah, Consolers of the Lonely is still the greatest album Brendan Benson, Jack White and co ever did. I’d go ahead even further and say that I think it’s one of the last and best big guitar-centric rock albums to come from the 00s before the whole indie explosion that seemed to erupt from about 2009 onwards. That’s right, this nobody has made this exaggerated statement that anyone will take with a pinch of salt.

I do thoroughly enjoy this album though. A lot of things Jack White’s involved in, I’m not too much a fan of. I like White Stripes songs here and there. Never bothered with his solo stuff. Too much of him is too much for me. But when he’s combined with Benson, I don’t know, something just changes. ‘Pull This Blanket Off’ is yet another example from Consolers… where the dynamic between the two brings the musical touches up a notch. It’s the album’s shortest track, clocking in at just under two minutes. You could consider it to be nothing more than a bit of an interlude moment. But there’s such a dramatic, yearning quality within that I think makes it deserve as much attention as the more “substantive” songs that are alongside it.

White sings the first verse, Benson sings the second, and after an ‘ah-ah’ refrain and short instrumental break, the two harmonise in the next two verses accompanied by the introduction of a warm, thick bass guitar, a patient kick drum and a steady tambourine. What the track is about, I don’t think anyone’s really cared to fully get into. Not from what I can see on the Internet anyway. But I feel like there’s something that’s meant to be very American/patriotic about it. Like the narrator’s trying to believe in this American Dream ideal and trying to stick by their morals, but is disillusioned by their community or things they’ve experienced in their lifetime. It doesn’t get too deep into the message because before you know it, the track comes to an early albeit resolving conclusion with Benson seeing the listener off with a comic “All right, good night.” ‘Rich Kid Blues’, the track that follows, is a bit of a continuation of the theme here though, at least I’d say it is, and that’s 4 and a half minutes in length. I’d suggest you listen to them both in quick succession.