Broken Boy Soldiers

Broken Boy Soldiers is the debut album by American rock band 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". The album earned a nomination for Best Rock Album at the 49th Grammy Awards.

"Broken Boy Soldier" redirects here. For the song of the same name, see Broken Boy Soldier (song).
Broken Boy Soldiers
Studio album by
The Raconteurs
ReleasedMay 16, 2006 (2006-05-16)
Recorded2005
StudioLe Grande (Detroit, MI)
Genre
Length33:42
Label
Producer
The Raconteurs chronology
Broken Boy Soldiers
(2006)		 Consolers of the Lonely
(2008)
Singles from Broken Boy Soldiers
  1. "Steady, As She Goes"
    Released: April 24, 2006
  2. "Hands"
    Released: July 31, 2006
  3. "Broken Boy Soldier"
    Released: October 23, 2006
  4. "Level"
    Released: August 24, 2006

Recording history

The songs were written by Brendan Benson and Jack 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.

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 an outro heavily influenced by AC/DC's "Back in Black", "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.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic75/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The A.V. ClubB[3]
Entertainment WeeklyB−[4]
Los Angeles Times[5]
Mojo[6]
NME6/10[7]
Pitchfork7.3/10[8]
Q[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
Spin[11]

Critics were generally favorable towards Broken Boy Soldiers. Rolling Stone said of the album "Expectations were sky-high, but the Raconteurs exceed them all."[10] 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."[12] 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."[13]

Dan Raper of PopMatters described the group's sound in the album as "garage-tinged/power-pop/rock 'n' roll, the kind of straightforward verse-chorus-bridge songs that do well on commercial radio".[14] Rob Fitzpatrick of NME regarded it as "psychedelic pop-rock that was popular between 1965 and 1968".[7] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic commented that the album's songs "prove that the Raconteurs are nothing less than a first-rate power pop band".[2]

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. As of 2009, the album has sold 522,000 copies in United States. [15] 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.

No.TitleLength
1."Steady, As She Goes"3:35
2."Hands"4:01
3."Broken Boy Soldier"3:02
4."Intimate Secretary"3:30
5."Together"3:58
6."Level"2:21
7."Store Bought Bones"2:25
8."Yellow Sun"3:20
9."Call It a Day"3:36
10."Blue Veins"3:54
Total length:33:42
Japanese edition
No.TitleLength
11."The Bane Rendition"4:21
Total length:38:03

Release history
Region Date Label
Germany May 12, 2006 XL
United Kingdom May 15, 2006
Spain
United States May 16, 2006 Warner Bros.
Canada Warner Music Canada
France Beggars
China March 1, 2007 Hal Leonard
Mexico

Personnel
The Racounters
Additional personnel
  • Vlado Meller – mastering
  • Patrick Hutchinson – additional engineering (track 3)
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References
  1. "Reviews for Broken Boy Soldiers by The Raconteurs". Metacritic. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Broken Boy Soldiers – The Raconteurs". AllMusic. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  3. Modell, Josh (May 17, 2006). "The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers". The A.V. Club. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  4. Tyrangiel, Josh (May 15, 2006). "Broken Boy Soldiers". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  5. Powers, Ann (May 16, 2006). "At boys' poker night, the art of raconteurs". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  6. "The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers". Mojo (150): 96. May 2006.
  7. Fitzpatrick, Rob (May 15, 2006). "The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers". NME. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  8. Mitchum, Rob (May 14, 2006). "The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  9. "The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers". Q (239): 108. June 2006.
  10. Sheffield, Rob (May 18, 2006). "Broken Boy Soldiers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  11. Harris, John (June 2006). "Getting Loose". Spin. 22 (6): 77. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  12. Arnold, Chuck (2006-06-05), "The Raconteurs". People. 65 (22):41
  13. B. G. (2006-05-20), "Broken Boy Soldiers". Billboard. 118 (20):33
  14. Raper, Dan. "Popmatters review". Popmatters.com. Retrieved 2012-06-10.
  15. Wood, Mikael (1 August 2009). "Solo Show". Billboard. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
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