Careful not to retread over past ground, but remaining mindful and conscious of their past as much as their roots, the Black Keys bring an even fuller and smarter sound to their newest album, Brothers (2010). Leading off with a sexy, slow burner where lead guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach finds his inner Prince (“Everlasting Light”) soon finding legs with the Marvin Gaye meets Superfly uptempo of “Tighten Up”, the album is rife with nods and grabs at a much more classic sound than even the Keys could have thought they were capable of. It could’ve been the short, if not extremely productive, hiatus that the band took over the last year or so which found Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney expanding on their own repertoire, Auerbach with a solo album, and the pair with the hip-hop blues hybrid of Blackrok (2009), which has sharpened their focus and made Brothers their most cohesive record since 2003’s Thickfreakness. The sludgy, soulful super-riffage is still all there, but Auerbach and Carney shock their sound with even more instrumentation than 2008’s Attack & Release and still find the sweet spot in between groovy minimalistic blues and deeply heavy soul jams. Brothers is truly an album about finding a stride, and the Keys have surely hit it on this one.
Listen to “Next Girl” and “Tighten Up”
Download “Brothers“
