The Black Keys released their 8th LP, Brothers, (not counting BlackRoc) on Tuesday May 18th. Brothers follows the aforementioned BlackRoc, which saw The Keys team up with Dame Dash for a rock/Hip Hop fusion album featuring the likes of Q-Tip, Mos Def, Rza, Rakewon, and others. It also follows solo releases from front man Dan Auerbach as well as drummer Patrick Carney. The list of experiences between The Black Keys’ 7th album Attack and Release and Brothers seems to have made an impact on both musicians, as Brothers is perhaps their most far-stretching album to date.
While they never lose “The Black Keys” sound, they do enhance it on Brothers, bringing in elements of other genres to create an album that stands up to any release of any genre that we’ve seen in 2010. As I’ve listened to the album since I picked it up about a week ago, one thought continues to run through my mind: these guys make it look too easy. The band that puts tremendous effort into their studio recordings as well as their live show, appears to come up with excellent music without even trying. It’s something we’ve expected from The Black Keys, yet something they do not take for granted. Coming from working class Akron, Ohio I’m not sure it’s even possible to take anything for granted, and The Black Keys embody their city in their approach to music and their careers, as Carney said in a recent interview, “When you sell a million records of your first or second album, sometimes bands don’t realize it can go away as fast as it came. That kind of success is due to radio play, which we never had… If you can’t write another hit, you are back to square one playing to your core audience. If you never built a core audience you are basically back to the garage, I guess… a million-dollar garage.”
For the creation of Brothers, The Black Keys took to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama and recorded the LP over the course of 10 days last August. They allowed the music to flow freely, and the result is continual stream of bluesy guitar rock that never gives up or gives in, nor stays the same. There are the bouncier numbers like the album’s first single “Tighten Up” and “The Only One” and “Ten Cent Pistol”. The Black Keys also give their audience the Howlin’ Wolf styled “Next Girl” and “I’m Not The One” that chill your bones. They also provide us with instrumental jams such as “Black Mud”, which feels like it could have landed on Check Your Head.
The final piece that makes Brothers one of the best albums of 2010 is the band’s cleverly marketing and packaging of the record. The album takes a “music for dummies” approach with the simple artwork letting listeners clearly know the album’s name, where the tracklist is located, and who is in the band. The attention is stylistically focused on the music, which is exactly where it should be.