The Black Keys | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Its too facile to call the Black Keys counterparts of the White Stripes: they share several surface similarities -- their names are color-coded, they hail from the Midwest, theyre guitar-and-drum blues-rock duos -- but the Black Keys are their own distinct thing, a tougher, rougher rock band with a purist streak that never surfaced in the Stripes. But thats not to say that the Black Keys are blues traditionalists: even on their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up, they covered the Beatles psychedelic classic "She Said She Said," indicating a fascination with sound and texture that would later take hold on such latter-day albums as 2008s Attack & Release, where guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney teamed up with sonic architect Danger Mouse. In between those two records, the duo established the Black Keys as a rock & roll band with a brutal, primal force, and songwriters of considerable depth, as evidenced on such fine albums as 2003s Thickfreakness and 2004s Rubber Factory. Natives of Akron, Ohio, the Black Keys released their debut, The Big Come Up, in 2002, receiving strong reviews and sales, and leading to a contract with Fat Possum by the end of the year. That label released Thickfreakness, recorded in a 14-hour session, in the spring of 2003, and the Keys supported the album with an opening tour for Sleater-Kinney. The Black Keys momentum escalated considerably with their 2004 album Rubber Factory, which not only received strong reviews but some high-profile play, including a video for "10 A.M. Automatic" featuring comedian David Cross. The bands highly touted live act was documented on a 2005 DVD, released the same year as Chulahoma -- an EP of blues covers -- appeared. The Black Keys made the leap to the major labels with 2006s Magic Potion, a moodier record that continued to build their fan base. The band capitalized on that moodiness with 2008s Attack & Release, whose production by Danger Mouse signaled that the Black Keys were hardly just blues-rock purists. Salvaged from sessions intended as a duet album with Ike Turner, who died before the record could be finished, the album was the Black Keys biggest to date, debuting in the Billboard Top 15 and earning strong reviews. Following their second live DVD, the Black Keys spent 2009 on side projects, with Auerbach releasing his solo album Keep It Hid in the beginning of the year, and Carney forming the band Drummer, in which he played bass. At the end of 2009, Blakroc, a rap-rock collaboration between the band and producer Damon Dash, appeared. Brothers, released in 2010, became their biggest album yet, generating the hit singles "Tighten Up," "Howlin for You," and "Next Girl." It also saw the Keys returning to their tough blues roots with a new grandness, earning three Grammy Awards, landing on year-end lists from NPR to Rolling Stone, and going gold. The band offered a more straight-ahead rock & roll sound with 2011s El Camino. On the strength of the hit single "Lonely Boy," El Camino debuted at number two on Billboards Top 200 and the Black Keys worked the album hard throughout the next year, releasing "Gold on the Ceiling" as the records second single and touring heavily. In the fall of 2012, the Tour Rehearsal Tapes EP -- a brief collection of live-in-the-studio run-throughs of 2012 material -- was released. Once again tapping Danger Mouse to produce a follow-up, the band went back into the studio in summer 2013 to record. Standing in contrast to the short, spiky rock & roll of El Camino, Turn Blue had a psychedelic undercurrent that could be heard on its preceding singles "Fever" and "Turn Blue." The album appeared early in May 2014 and promptly debuted at the top of the pop charts. Following the promotional cycle for Turn Blue, the Black Keys went on an extended hiatus. Auerbach kept himself busy with plenty of production gigs, along with forming a second band -- the soul-inflected the Arcs --and delivering a second solo album, Waiting for a Song, in 2017. Carney also worked as a producer, notably collaborating with Michelle Branch on her 2017 album Hopeless Romantic. The Black Keys returned to action in March 2019 with the release of the single "Lo/Hi," the first song from their ninth album, Lets Rock. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 17 Title: The Big Come Up Released: 2002-05-20 Tracks: 13 Duration: 54:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Busted (02:33) 2 Do the Rump (02:37) 3 I’ll Be Your Man (02:20) 4 Countdown (02:38) 5 The Breaks (03:01) 6 Run Me Down (02:27) 7 Leavin’ Trunk (03:00) 8 Heavy Soul (02:08) 9 She Said, She Said (02:32) 10 Them Eyes (02:23) 11 Yearnin’ (01:58) 12 Brooklyn Bound (03:11) 13 240 Years Before Your Time (23:20) |
| The Big Come Up : Allmusic album Review : As minimal two-man blues-rock bands go, this has to be near the top of the heap. The problem with minimal two-man blues-rock outfits (and there have been more of them than you think) is that theyre, well, usually too minimal, with thin garage sound and a shortage of variety. The Black Keys sound, impressively, is not too thin (though it is garage-ish), and theres enough deft incorporation of funk, soul, and hard rock into the harsh juke joint-ish core to avoid monotony. Most importantly, Dan Auerbach has a genuinely fine, powerful blues voice, sometimes approximating a white, slightly smoother Howlin Wolf (particularly on the opener, "Busted"). Auerbachs a good guitarist, too, conjuring suitably harsh and busy (and sometimes heavily reverbed) riffs out of what sounds like a cheap but effectively harsh amp. Patrick Carneys drums might be the cruder component of this two-man band, but they keep the sound earthy without sounding sloppily punkish for the hell of it, as too many such groups searching for the blues-punk fusion do. The very occasional insertion of hip-hop snippets seems neither here nor there, and the cover of the Beatles "She Said, She Said" seems like an odd choice. But overall its quite cool raunchy electric blues with more vigor and imagination than similarly raw, elderly Southern juke joint artists who came into vogue starting in the 1990s. And its way fresher than the standard bar band blues-rockers with slicker execution and more reverence for blues clichés. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 17 Title: Thickfreakness Released: 2003-04-08 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:44 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Thickfreakness (03:48) 2 Hard Row (03:15) 3 Set You Free (02:45) 4 Midnight in Her Eyes (04:02) 5 Have Love Will Travel (03:04) 6 Hurt Like Mine (03:27) 7 Everywhere I Go (05:40) 8 No Trust (03:37) 9 If You See Me (02:52) 10 Hold Me in Your Arms (03:19) 11 I Cry Alone (02:48) |
| Thickfreakness : Allmusic album Review : While the vast majority of post-punk bands who have an obvious taste for the blues seem to enjoy taking the style apart and messing around with the bits and pieces, the Black Keys are the (relative) traditionalists within the subgenre. With their two-piece, no-bass format, theres no room for clutter or wank, and the raunchy fuzz of Dan Auerbachs guitar (and drummer Patrick Carneys production) owes more to the Gories/Blues Explosion/White Stripes school of aural grime than anything else, but look past all that and the Black Keys are a straight-up blues band who could probably cut an album for Alligator if they were willing to clean up their act and fill out the lineup. And Alligator would doubtless be glad to have em -- the Black Keyss wail is hot, primal, and heartfelt, and Auerbacks lean but meaty guitar lines and room-filling vocals drag the blues into the 21st century through sheer force of will without sounding like these guys are in any way mocking their influences. In short, if youre looking for irony, youre out of luck; if you want to hear a rock band confront the blues with soul, muscle, and respect, then Thickfreakness is right up your alley. Points added for the fact that the Black Keys performed, recorded, and produced Thickfreakness all by their lonesome in a single day -- further proof these guys are not messing around. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 17 Title: The Six Parts Seven / The Black Keys Released: 2003-05-16 Tracks: 4 Duration: 16:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 A Blueprint of Something Never Finished (06:41) 2 The Moan (03:32) 3 Thickfreakness (03:49) 4 Yearnin (02:56) |
 | Album: 4 of 17 Title: Rubber Factory Released: 2004-09-07 Tracks: 13 Duration: 41:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 When the Lights Go Out (03:23) 2 10 A.M. Automatic (02:59) 3 Just Couldnt Tie Me Down (02:57) 4 All Hands Against His Own (03:16) 5 The Desperate Man (03:54) 6 Girl Is on My Mind (03:28) 7 The Lengths (04:54) 8 Grown So Ugly (02:27) 9 Stack Shot Billy (03:21) 10 Act Nice and Gentle (02:41) 11 Aeroplane Blues (02:50) 12 Keep Me (02:52) 13 Till I Get My Way (02:31) |
| Rubber Factory : Allmusic album Review : Its easy to think of the Black Keys as the flip side of the White Stripes. They both hail from the Midwest, they both work a similar garage blues ground and both have color-coded names. If theyre not quite kissing cousins, theyre certainly kindred spirits, and theyre following surprisingly similar career arcs, as the Keys third album, Rubber Factory, is neatly analogous to the Stripes third album breakthrough, White Blood Cells. Rubber Factory finds the duo expanding, stretching, and improving, coming into its own as a distinctive, original, thoroughly great rock & roll band. With 2003s Thickfreakness, guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney delivered on the promise of a raw, exciting debut by sharpening their sound and strengthening the songwriting, thereby upping the ante for their next record, and Rubber Factory doesnt disappoint. Instead, it surprises in a number of delightful ways, redefining the duo without losing the essence of the band. For instance, the production has more shades than either The Big Come Up or Thickfreakness -- witness the creepy late-night vibe of the opening "When the Lights Go Out" or how the spare, heartbroken, and slide guitar-laden "The Lengths" sounds like its been rusted over -- but its also harder, nastier, and uglier than those albums, piled with truly brutal, gut-level guitar. Yet through these sheets of noise, vulnerability pokes through, not just on "The Lengths," but in a lazy, loping, terrific version of the Kinks "Act Nice and Gentle." And, like their cover of the Beatles "She Said, She Said" on their debut, "Act Nice and Gentle" illustrates that even if the Black Keys have more legit blues credentials than any of their peers, theyre nevertheless an indie rock band raised with not just a knowledge of classic rock, but with excellent taste and, most importantly, an instinct for what makes great rock & roll. They know that sound matters, not just how a band plays but how a band is recorded, and that blues sounds better when its unvarnished, which is why each of their records feels more like a real blues album than anything cut since the 60s. But theyre not revivalists, either. Theyve absorbed the language of classic rock and the sensibility of indie rock -- theyre turning familiar sounds into something nervy and fresh, music that builds on the past yet lives fearlessly in the moment. On a sheer gut level, theyre intoxicating and that alone would be enough to make Rubber Factory a strong listen, but what makes it transcendent is that Auerbach has developed into such a fine songwriter. His songs have enough melodic and lyrical twists to make it seem like hes breaking rules, but his trick is that hes doing this within traditional blues-rock structures. Hes not just reinvigorating a familiar form, hes doing it without a lick of pretension; it never seems as if the songs were written, but that theyve always existed and have just been discovered, which is true of any great blues song. Carney gives these songs the production they deserve -- some tunes are dense and heavy with guitars, others are spacious and haunting -- and the result is the most exciting and best rock & roll record of 2004. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 17 Title: Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough Released: 2006-05-02 Tracks: 7 Duration: 28:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Keep Your Hands Off Her (03:07) 2 Have Mercy on Me (04:43) 3 Work Me (04:16) 4 Meet Me in the City (03:38) 5 Nobody but You (05:22) 6 My Mind Is Ramblin (06:45) 7 Juniors Wife (00:33) |
 | Album: 6 of 17 Title: Your Touch - The EP Released: 2006-08-15 Tracks: 3 Duration: 10:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Your Touch (02:44) 2 Strange Desire (04:21) 3 Thickfreakness (Live in Darwin, Australia) (03:52) |
 | Album: 7 of 17 Title: Magic Potion Released: 2006-09-11 Tracks: 11 Duration: 42:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Just Got to Be (03:00) 2 Your Touch (02:44) 3 Youre the One (03:28) 4 Just a Little Heat (03:42) 5 Give Your Heart Away (03:26) 6 Strange Desire (04:21) 7 Modern Times (04:21) 8 The Flame (04:36) 9 Goodbye Babylon (05:55) 10 Black Door (03:30) 11 Elevator (03:43) |
| Magic Potion : Allmusic album Review : Akrons the Black Keys have jumped labels again with Magic Potion. Beginning on their own Alive label, the band established itself internationally with Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory. They appear now with their Nonesuch debut -- they share a label with everyone from Pat Metheny and Sam Phillips to Toumani Diabaté and Stephin Merritt. Fans neednt worry that the Black Keys being on a label distributed by Warner has done anything to their sound. Magic Potion is gritty, raw, immediate and sludgy. It was recorded at the bands studios in Akron, and the only real difference is that theyve become even better at what they do. Here are 11 tunes rooted in blues and riff-heavy rock, with only guitar and drums ripping through them like a loose power cable in a thunderstorm. Check out the wildly rockist riff that is at the heart of the albums opener "Just Got to Be," or the wily shambolic blues in "Your Touch." If anything, Magic Potion reminds the listener of the late great Red Devils King King except they have a deeper country, south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-line feel to them, even on a ballad such as "Youre the One," which feels like its barely being held together by Dan Auerbachs voice, which unifies the guitar and Patrick Carneys drums. "Strange Desire" is an electric-acid-blues moan disguised as a ballad, whereas "Just a Little Heat" inverts the riff from Led Zeppelins "Living Loving Maid " to offer a wide-open howl of distorted guitar and a slippery snare and cymbals crash. For those who feel that the blues have nothing to offer in the 21st century -- especially electric blues, which has spawned countless cookie-cutter, slick deceptions disguised as the real thing -- Magic Potion should satisfy deeply. Here is a future blues that comes right from the groin of history, reinterpreted through garage rock, alcohol, and rage: just check out "Modern Times." In the slow drawling burn, one can hear Junior Kimbroughs ghost possessing Auerbach. "Elevator" closes the set on a feedback-drenched, minimal Delta blues that has more to do with the cagey antics of Charley Patton and Lightnin Hopkins -- and R.L. Burnside, too -- than with either the White Stripes or Ronnie Earl. This is vulgar music, completely unsentimental or nostalgic but with a deep, wild, and tenacious heart; its spooky, un-caged, and frighteningly descriptive of our time and place. Its been a long time since the majors put out a record this savage. This is the door to the blues in 2006; hold on to your hips because they will begin to twitch. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 17 Title: Youre the One Released: 2007 Tracks: 3 Duration: 12:59 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Youre the One (03:28) 2 The Way I Feel When Im With You (03:50) 3 Work Me (05:41) |
 | Album: 9 of 17 Title: Attack & Release Released: 2008-03-31 Tracks: 11 Duration: 39:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 All You Ever Wanted (02:56) 2 I Got Mine (03:59) 3 Strange Times (03:10) 4 Psychotic Girl (04:10) 5 Lies (03:58) 6 Remember When (Side A) (03:21) 7 Remember When (Side B) (02:10) 8 Same Old Thing (03:09) 9 So He Won’t Break (04:14) 10 Oceans and Streams (03:26) 11 Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be (04:54) |
| Attack & Release : Allmusic album Review : Back in 2002, it seemed easy to discern which of the Midwestern minimalist blues-rock duos was which: the White Stripes were the art-punks, naming albums after Dutch art movements, while the Black Keys were the nasty primitives, bashing out thrilling, raw records like their 2002 debut The Big Come Up and its 2003 follow-up Thickfreakness. Six years later, the duos appear to have switched camps, as Jack White leads the Stripes down a path of obstinate traditionalism while the Black Keys get out, way out, on their fifth album, Attack & Release. Evidently, their 2004 mini-masterpiece Rubber Factory represented the crest of their brutal blues wave, as ever since singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney have receded from the gnarled precision of their writing and the big, brutal blues thump, they started to float into the atmosphere with their 2006 EP-length tribute to Junior Kimbrough, Chulahoma. Ever since then, the Black Keys have emphasized waves of sound over either ballast or song, something that should be evident from the choice of Danger Mouse as the producer of Attack & Release, a seemingly unlikely pair that found common ground in the form of Ike Turner. Danger Mouse worked with the rock & roll renegade when he produced the Gorillazs Demon Days and the plan was to have the Black Keys cut an album with Ike but Turners death turned the project into a full-fledged Keys album. Thats the official story, anyway, but the timeline doesnt quite seem to fit -- Ike died December 12, 2007 and a finished copy of Attack & Release was out in February, which is an awfully short turnaround to complete an album -- nor does the sound of the album seem to fit that timeline, either, as its elliptical, open-ended, and reliant on the spacy sonics the Black Keys have sketched out since Rubber Factory, so its hard to imagine where Turner would have fit into this. But its not hard at all to see how avant guitarist Marc Ribot fits into this elastic mix, as this is the kind of restless, textural roots-aware rock reminiscent of the spirit, if not quite the sound, of Elvis Costello and Tom Waits, two mavericks Ribot has played with in years past. This shift to sound over song has been so gradual for the Black Keys that Ribots cameo doesnt seem intrusive, nor does Danger Mouses hazy production feel forced upon the band, its filled with details so sly theyre almost imperceptible. As always, Danger Mouse encourages the band to intensify whats already there, and so Attack & Release willfully drifts, as dreamy, artfully sonic sculptures are punctured by Auerbachs rumbling guitars and Carneys clattering drums. But where the interplay of the Auerbach and Carney always felt immediate in their earliest work, theres a bit of a remove here, with the riffs used as paint brushes instead of blunt objects. The same can be said of the songs, where even the most immediate tunes -- "Psychotic Girl," the B-side "Remember When" -- dont grab and hold like those on the groups earliest records, and theyre not really growers either, as the point here is not the individual tunes but rather the greater picture, as everything here weaves together to create a mood: one that shifts but doesnt stray, one thats nebulous but not formless, one thats evocative but not haunting. To be sure, its an accomplishment and one that showcases the Black Keys deepening skills but at times its hard not to miss how the duo used to grab a listener by the neck and not let go. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 17 Title: Brothers Released: 2010-05-14 Tracks: 15 Duration: 55:36 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Everlasting Light (03:24) 2 Next Girl (03:18) 3 Tighten Up (03:31) 4 Howlin’ for You (03:12) 5 She’s Long Gone (03:06) 6 Black Mud (02:09) 7 The Only One (05:00) 8 Too Afraid to Love You (03:25) 1 Ten Cent Pistol (04:29) 2 Sinister Kid (03:45) 3 The Go Getter (03:37) 4 I’m Not the One (03:49) 5 Unknown Brother (04:00) 6 Never Gonna Give You Up (03:39) 7 These Days (05:12) |
| Brothers : Allmusic album Review : Retreating from the hazy Danger Mouse-fueled pot dream of Attack & Release, the Black Keys headed down to the legendary Muscle Shoals, recording their third album on their own and dubbing it Brothers. The studio, not to mention the artwork patterned after such disregarded Chess psychedelic-era relics as This Is Howlin’ Wolf’s New Album, are good indications that the tough blues band of the Black Keys earliest records is back, but the group hasn’t forgotten what they’ve learned in their inwardly psychedelic mid-period. Brothers still can get mighty trippy -- the swirling chintzy organ that circles “The Only One,” the Baroque harpsichord flair of “Too Afraid to Love You” -- but the album is built with blood and dirt, so its wilder moments remain gritty without being earthbound. Sonically, that scuffed-up spaciness -- the open air created by the fuzz guitars and phasing, analog keyboards, and cavernous drums -- is considerably appealing, but the Black Keys ace in the hole remains the exceptional songwriting that Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are so good at. They twist a Gary Glitter stomp into swamp fuzz blues, steal a title from Archie Bell & the Drells but never reference that classic Tighten Up groove, and approximate a slow ‘60s soul crawl on “Unknown Brother” before following it up with a version of Jerry Butler’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and it’s nearly impossible to tell which is the cover. And that’s the great thing about the Black Keys in general and Brothers in particular: the past and present intermingle so thoroughly that they blur, yet there’s no affect, just three hundred pounds of joy. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 17 Title: iTunes Session Released: 2010-10-19 Tracks: 10 Duration: 35:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Chop and Change (03:26) 2 Everlasting Light (03:35) 3 Howlin for You (03:49) 4 Ill Be Your Man (03:17) 5 Next Girl (03:12) 6 Shes Long Gone (04:11) 7 Sinister Kid (03:33) 8 Tighten Up (03:38) 9 Too Afraid to Love You (03:58) 10 Your Touch (02:51) |
 | Album: 12 of 17 Title: El Camino Released: 2011-12-01 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Lonely Boy (03:13) 2 Dead and Gone (03:41) 3 Gold on the Ceiling (03:44) 4 Little Black Submarines (04:11) 5 Money Maker (02:57) 6 Run Right Back (03:17) 7 Sister (03:25) 8 Hell of a Season (03:45) 9 Stop Stop (03:30) 10 Nova Baby (03:27) 11 Mind Eraser (03:15) |
| El Camino : Allmusic album Review : Picking up on the ‘60s soul undercurrent of Brothers, the Black Keys smartly capitalize on their 2010 breakthrough by plunging headfirst into retro-soul on El Camino. Savvy operators that they are, the Black Keys don’t opt for authenticity à la Sharon Jones or Eli “Paperboy” Reed: they bring Danger Mouse back into the fold, the producer adding texture and glitter to the duo’s clean, lean songwriting. Apart from “Little Black Submarines,” an acoustic number that crashes into Zeppelin heaviosity as it reaches its coda, every one of the 11 songs here clocks in under four minutes, adding up to a lean 38-minute rock & roll rush, an album that’s the polar opposite of the Black Keys’ previous collaboration with Danger Mouse, the hazy 2008 platter Attack & Release. That purposely drifted into detours, whereas El Camino never takes its eye off the main road: it barrels down the highway, a modern motor in its vintage body. Danger Mouse adds glam flair that doesn’t distract from the songs, all so sturdily built they easily accommodate the shellacked layers of cheap organs, fuzz guitars, talk boxes, backing girls, tambourines, foot stomps, and handclaps. Each element harks back to something from the past -- there are Motown beats and glam rock guitars -- but everything is fractured through a modern prism: the rhythms have swing, but they’re tight enough to illustrate the duo’s allegiance to hip-hop; the gleaming surfaces are postmodern collages, hinting at collective aural memories. All this blurring of eras is in the service of having a hell of a good time. More than any other Black Keys album, El Camino is an outright party, playing like a collection of 11 lost 45 singles, each one having a bigger beat or dirtier hook than the previous side. What’s being said doesn’t matter as much as how it’s said: El Camino is all trash and flash and it’s highly addictive. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 17 Title: Tour Rehearsal Tapes Released: 2012-10-09 Tracks: 6 Duration: 20:36 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Dead and Gone (03:47) 2 Gold on the Ceiling (03:36) 3 Lonely Boy (03:15) 4 Next Girl (03:02) 5 Run Right Back (03:24) 6 Tighten Up (03:32) |
 | Album: 14 of 17 Title: The Akron Sessions Released: 2013-01-01 Tracks: 6 Duration: 22:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Everlasting Light (live) (04:08) 2 Howlin for You (live) (03:56) 3 Shes Long Gone (live) (03:45) 4 Next Girl (live) (03:12) 5 Tighten Up (live) (03:33) 6 Too Afraid to Love (live) (03:45) |
 | Album: 15 of 17 Title: Fever EP Released: 2014-04-29 Tracks: 5 Duration: 17:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Fever (04:06) 2 Turn Blue (03:42) 3 Lonely Boy (03:13) 4 Tighten Up (03:31) 5 Strange Times (03:10) |
 | Album: 16 of 17 Title: Turn Blue Released: 2014-05-09 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Weight of Love (06:50) 2 In Time (04:28) 3 Turn Blue (03:42) 4 Fever (04:06) 5 Year in Review (03:48) 6 Bullet in the Brain (04:15) 7 It’s Up to You Now (03:10) 8 Waiting on Words (03:37) 9 10 Lovers (03:33) 10 In Our Prime (04:38) 11 Gotta Get Away (03:02) |
| Turn Blue : Allmusic album Review : Like corporate drones determined to cut loose every third Friday whether they need to or not, the Black Keys take the time to schedule semi-regular journeys into the unknown. Turn Blue, the 2014 successor to their down-and-dirty international blockbuster El Camino, is one of those trips, a churning psychedelic excursion that slowly pulses in any color you like. Those colors spread out slow and low as Turn Blue gets underway via "Weight of Love," sounding not at all unlike Pink Floyds "Breathe in the Air," a deliberate comparison the Keys return to often throughout the album, letting it decorate fleeting moments and infuse full songs ("Bullet in the Brain," the first single pulled from the LP, hits many of the same notes). Floyd looked to space but, like the Ohio natives that they are, the Black Keys concerns are earthbound. Dan Auerbach primarily sings songs about love lost and won, sprinkling in a little bit of lust along the way, and he and Patrick Carney certainly share a love of soul and groove, something thats rarely heard in music as trippy as this. Time and time again throughout Turn Blue, the Black Keys and Danger Mouse turn toward those rhythms without abandoning the psychedelic swirl that gives the album its distinctive flavor. Unlike 2008s Attack & Release -- the last time the Black Keys decided to get out, way out (and not coincidentally their first collaboration with Danger Mouse) -- this has momentum, a drive provided by those heavy rhythms (they escalate so much, "10 Lovers" flirts with glitter-ball disco) and sheets of outsized fuzz guitars that cut through the haze. Songs stretch out longer here than they have on any previous Black Keys LP, but this doesnt feel indulgent due to the precision of the production; things may seem to drift but every bit of fuzz and echo is in its right place. Initially, this immaculately shaded production draws attention to itself but, in time, Turn Blue reveals that underneath its surface flash its a quietly adventurous and substantive record. The Black Keys retain their fascination with southern soul of the late 60s -- the title track is coolly insinuating, "Fever" stomps and shakes -- but where El Camino pushed these retro-fantasies to the center, theyre merely the bones of this record, the solid structure upon which the band and Danger Mouse choose to expand. Although the closing "Gotta Get Away"-- its title borrowed from both the Rolling Stones and the Impressions but the song sounds like neither group -- illustrates how good the duo is when they keep things grounded in the garage, the rest of Turn Blue impresses because it does what all great bands should do: it captures a band stretching while always sounding like themselves. | ||
 | Album: 17 of 17 Title: “Let’s Rock” Released: 2019-06-28 Tracks: 12 Duration: 38:35 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Shine a Little Light (03:17) 2 Eagle Birds (02:40) 3 Lo/Hi (02:57) 4 Walk Across the Water (03:56) 5 Tell Me Lies (03:40) 6 Every Little Thing (03:20) 7 Get Yourself Together (03:57) 8 Sit Around and Miss You (02:41) 9 Go (02:27) 10 Breaking Down (03:25) 11 Under the Gun (03:16) 12 Fire Walk With Me (02:58) |