Broken Boy Soldiers

Infobox Album
Name = Broken Boy Soldiers
Type = studio
Artist = The Raconteurs


Released = May 16 2006
Recorded = 2005
Genre = Hard rock, Indie rock, blues rock, folk rock
Length = 33:42
Label = Third Man Records/
V2 Records
Producer = Jack White III and Brendan Benson
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Australian Cover
Type = album


Lower caption = Released under the name 'The Saboteurs' in Australia
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:2edqoalarijv link]
*"Cluas" (7/10) [http://www.cluas.com/music/albums/raconteurs-broken-boy-soldiers.htm link]
*"Drowned in Sound" (8/10) [http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/7404 link]
*entertainment.ie Rating|4|5 [http://entertainment.ie/reviews/review.asp?ID=4489&SubCat=CD 5/19/2006]
*"Entertainment Weekly" (B-) [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/review/music/0,6115,1193564_4_0_,00.html 5/12/2006]
*"NME" (6/10) [http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-raconteurs/7939 link]
*Pitchfork (7.3/10) [http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21516/The_Raconteurs_Broken_Boy_Soldiers 5/15/2006]
*Popmatters (6/10) [http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/the_raconteurs_broken_boy_soldiers/ 5/12/2006]
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|4|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/theraconteurs/albums/album/10303802/review/19766465/broken_boy_soldiers link]
This album = "Broken Boy Soldiers"
(2006)
Next album = "Consolers of the Lonely"
(2008)

"Broken Boy Soldiers" is the debut album of The Raconteurs, released on May 15 2006 in the United Kingdom and May 16 2006 in the United States. The album was generally favored among critics and spawned the hit single "Steady, As She Goes".

Recording history

The songs were written by Benson and White. "Steady, As She Goes" was the first song the pair worked on, followed by "Broken Boy Soldier". After the completion of these two songs and their demos, they called in Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler to work on the songs.

In an interview with "Uncut" magazine White said that "Store Bought Bones" originated from an outtake of The White Stripes album, "Get Behind Me Satan". In the same interview, Benson also said that "Call It a Day" and "Together" were both songs he was working on for his next solo album. "Yellow Sun" was recorded live, according to an interview with the band on AOL Interface.Fact|date=June 2007

Benson said in an interview with "Mojo" magazine that the album feels like a demo because of how the band plays the songs live now. "Hands" features a "Back in Black" style outro, "Call It a Day" has been sped up (found on the Zane Lowe EP), "Store Bought Bones" has been merged with B-side "The Bane Rendition", and many other changes.

The cover was photographed by Autumn de Wilde and designed by Patrick Keeler and Aleksey Shirokov.

Reception

Critics were generally favorable towards "Broken Boy Soldiers". "Rolling Stone" said of the album "Expectations were sky-high, but the Raconteurs exceed them all." [Sheffield, Rob (2006-05-18), "The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers". "Rolling Stone". (1000/1001):226] "People" magazine gave the album three-and-a-half stars, making the album the Critic's Choice of the week; they commented "Broken Boy Soldiers incorporates just enough weirdness to show that he (White) hasn't completely changed his stripes." [Arnold, Chuck (2006-06-05), "The Raconteurs". "People". 65 (22):41] More conservatively, Billboard remarked "No one is breaking any ground here, and White fanatics looking for a new White Stripes record should temper their expectations. But as far as side projects go, this is as good as it gets." [B. G. (2006-05-20), "Broken Boy Soldiers". "Billboard". 118 (20):33]

The album ranked No. 28 on Rolling Stone's year-end critic's list and No. 19 on Spin Magazine's year-end Top 40 albums. It entered the UK charts at #2 and managed to reach #7 in the U.S. Since its release, it has sold approximately 425,000 copies in the U.S. [http://www.therockradio.com/2007/01/white-stripes-looking-for-one-album.html White Stripes looking for one-album deal] , "The Rock Radio", 2007-01-31] In December 2006, Britain's Mojo magazine made it their Album of the Year. The lead single "Steady, As She Goes" became the band's first Top 10 hit in the UK.

Track listing

All songs by Brendan Benson and Jack White.

# "Steady, As She Goes" – 3:35
# "Hands" – 4:01
# "Broken Boy Soldier" – 3:02
# "Intimate Secretary" – 3:30
# "Together" – 3:58
# "Level" – 2:21
# "Store Bought Bones" – 2:25
# "Yellow Sun" – 3:20
# "Call It a Day" – 3:36
# "Blue Veins" – 3:52

Personnel

*Jack White - vocals, guitars, keyboards
*Jack Lawrence - bass guitar
*Patrick Keeler - drums
*Brendan Benson - vocals, guitars, keyboards

References