Album Review: The Saboteurs - Help Us Stranger

Spectacular as it was to witness The Saboteurs perform new material live on their recent (and first-ever) Australian tour, it takes the studio recording of their brand new album, Help Us Stranger, to really appreciate the melodic nuances, timeless influences, and eccentric genius of vocalist and guitarist Jack White.

The Saboteurs are more than White, of course, and his band of very merry men have been visited by the ghosts of blues-rock and '60s pop greats in this release; there's something new to discover with each listen. 

Don’t Bother Me is fun and eccentric, and the title track is a feast for the senses with its bright percussion, textured guitars and raw vocal harmonies, while blues ballad Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying) trudges through some heavy narratives without becoming muddy.

And have The Saboteurs managed to create a track on par with their seminal 2006 single Steady, As She Goes? Well, no, but that doesn’t mean Help Us Stranger is any less poetically profound, melodically mad, or instrumentally ingenious.