The Black Keys have quickly come to be known as a member of the elite duo of lo-fi blues-rock duos. Together with the White Stripes, they've proven that an electric guitar and a drum set can rock even harder than what is traditionally known as a "full band."
But singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach has nowhere near the vocal range and quirkiness of Jack White, leading to the common observation that all Black Keys songs sound similar.
Four full-length albums later, it was time to shake things up a bit. In a surprising move, the Keys enlisted the help of producer Danger Mouse (who contributed to the successes of the Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley) and entered a real recording studio for the very first time. To the delight of fans, new and old alike, the resulting sound is different and exciting - without straying too far from the Black Keys' trademark sound.
For all intents and purposes, the Keys have added a full band member for this recording. Not only does Danger Mouse leave his mark on each track, but most tracks feature more instruments than just guitar and drums. The first track, "All You Ever Wanted," begins as a slow ballad unfitting for the album's opener, but by the end shows signs of some serious mixing as it cuts back and forth between quieter guitar and a powerful combination of distortion and electric organ.
"I Got Mine," one of the album's standout tracks, opens with a simple, catchy guitar riff, signaling that this song ranks among the band's better, old-fashioned songs and proves that they still know how to play as a two-piece. But exactly halfway through the track, a bridge mixes in at least three other instruments to play around with that same riff, breaking it down into a frenzy. Then the powerful opening riff takes center stage once again, drowning out all of the chaotic sounds with gusto.
The album's first single, "Strange Times," opens with a shockingly danceable beat. The song is by far the catchiest on the album and shows some signs of hip-hop sensibility. Amusingly, Auerbach's shrill vibrato on this song mirrors that of Cee-Lo (and even more so on "Oceans and Streams"), though it's hard to tell whether or not this act is intentional. But just like Gnarls Barkley's hit "Crazy," the song's repetitiveness and relative lack of depth leads listeners to skip over this track after multiple listens.
Next up is "Psychotic Girl," which opens with a banjo riff over a driving beat. The song's eerie tone is enhanced by the echoes of howls that fade in and out of the background. As the banjo, guitar and bass create a complex symphony of sound, it becomes clear that this song, if it were stripped down, would have made for a mediocre track at the end of an old Black Keys album. But with Danger Mouse as a conductor, the guys are able to achieve a great sound in an area other than simple, catchy riffs.
Another successful experimen-
tal comes in the form of "Remember When" sides A and B, which feature the same lyrics set to completely different styles. Whereas side A is the slowest song on the album, with Auerbach howling, "Remember how I held you near/ And whispered in your precious ear/ Sweet things, yeah sweet things," over a lazy beat, side B is the album's most upbeat song. The band shows its punk-rock roots, belting the same lyrics enthusiastically.
"Same Old Thing" is the track most heavily influenced by Dan-
ger Mouse. The riff sounds more like a melody from Danger Mouse's collaboration "The Mouse and the Mask" (2005) played on guitar, while the drum beat has a simple, hip-hop feel to it. The album's later tracks continue in this style, as the band seems to increasingly let its producer take the wheel. This decision is just what fans are looking for; as the later tracks on previous albums all seemed to blend together, each of these are unique and can be listened
to over and over.
