The Black Keys: Strange Times
The best music creates pictures in the listeners head. One earful of the Black Keys and the listener begins to conjure images of smoky, dark barrooms complete with sticky blood stained floors. You could imagine Dan Auerbach thrashing away on his guitar layered over his gruff vocals and Patrick Carney attempting to murder the drums as a fist fight takes place on the dance floor. The band has spent their seven year career piecing together authentic lo-fi garage blues rock that has yet to hit a sour yet. Already a critical darling and your favorite bands’ favorite band, Black Keys have recently added another notch to their belts by teaming up with producer Danger Mouse for their fifth album “Attack and Release”. Rumors began to circulate early last year about The Black Keys and Danger Mouse coming together to produce an album for Ike Turner. Since Ike Turners passing Black Keys has kept the backing music intended for him and Auerbach layered his own vocals over them. The result is an all out attack on their instruments culminating in a strange yet effective mix of psychedelic rock and blues. Danger Mouse’s presence is felt on this album without it being overbearing or unwelcome as he fills in the bands usual lo-fi touch with a bit of polish. In fact it is not totally inaccurate to describe “Attack and Release” as futuristic blues rock. Their first single “Strange Times” is a great representation of the bands style enjoyable whether in a smoky bar room or laser tag arcade.
The best music creates pictures in the listeners head. One earful of the Black Keys and the listener begins to conjure images of smoky, dark barrooms complete with sticky blood stained floors. You could imagine Dan Auerbach thrashing away on his guitar layered over his gruff vocals and Patrick Carney attempting to murder the drums as a fist fight takes place on the dance floor. The band has spent their seven year career piecing together authentic lo-fi garage blues rock that has yet to hit a sour yet. Already a critical darling and your favorite bands’ favorite band, Black Keys have recently added another notch to their belts by teaming up with producer Danger Mouse for their fifth album “Attack and Release”.
Rumors began to circulate early last year about The Black Keys and Danger Mouse coming together to produce an album for Ike Turner. Since Ike Turners passing Black Keys has kept the backing music intended for him and Auerbach layered his own vocals over them. The result is an all out attack on their instruments culminating in a strange yet effective mix of psychedelic rock and blues. Danger Mouse’s presence is felt on this album without it being overbearing or unwelcome as he fills in the bands usual lo-fi touch with a bit of polish. In fact it is not totally inaccurate to describe “Attack and Release” as futuristic blues rock. Their first single “Strange Times” is a great representation of the bands style enjoyable whether in a smoky bar room or laser tag arcade.
