Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	75/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The A.V. Club	B−
Entertainment Weekly	B+
FasterLouder
musicOMH
NME	(7/10)
The New York Times	(favorable)
Pitchfork	(7.4/10)
Q
Rolling Stone

Consolers of the Lonely is the second album by American rock band The Raconteurs. It was released on March 25, 2008 on Warner Bros. Records in most parts of the world, and a day earlier on XL Recordings in the UK.

The band did no promotion before the album's release, and its existence was only confirmed a week before. Even so, the record was accidentally leaked by iTunes, and some fans managed to purchase the album early. It is available on CD, vinyl, and MP3. A video for the first single from the album, "Salute Your Solution" was released on the same day. The album earned a nomination for Best Rock Album at the 51st Grammy Awards.

The band premiered "Five on the Five" during their last tour. The title of the record comes from the inscription in the side of a Washington, D.C. post office written by Charles William Eliot, which reads in full:

Messenger of sympathy and love, servant of parted friends, consoler of the lonely, bond of the scattered family, enlarger of the common life.

According to the band, the album was finished during the first week in March and was released less than three weeks later. For a band of their stature, the release of Consolers of the Lonely with no promotion was highly unorthodox. Music critics and commentators largely saw it as a way to eschew critics and deal directly with fans.The Observer called it "one of the most exciting musical events of 2008." Despite the already rapid release time and efforts to secure the date, the record was briefly available for purchase on iTunes Friday, March 21.

Critique of Consolers of the Lonely was mostly positive; much of it centered on the chaotic sound and diverse nature of the album as well as its resemblance to albums by Led Zeppelin and The Who. According to The Toronto Star, "White's bent Americana and Benson's British invasion-isms yields wonderfully unpredictable results".Kitty Empire of The Observer called the album "lively" and said it "finds [the Raconteurs] luxuriating in fancy stuff with kid-in-a-sweetshop enthusiasm. Minimalism is out, bombast is in; the detail, is, as ever, lip-smacking." Commenting on the band's chemistry and freeness, Rolling Stone said the album is "a blissfully stoned conversation between White and Benson about their favorite bands: Led Zeppelin, the Who, Badfinger", though it added, "that freedom is not always satisfying."Austin-American Statesmen said "it's a weirdly overblown and curiously dull album," and complained about its production. The New York Times echoed those statements about the "chaos" of the album, but concluded that "that desperation only makes the crunch of the music more euphoric."The Guardian found that on Consolers of the Lonely, the Raconteurs "establish a firm, emotionally charged identity of their own" and called the effort "flawed but ragged glory."Allmusic concluded that the album is a "lop-sided, bottom-loaded album that's better and richer than their debut."

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Wikipedia