The Best Thing I Heard This Week: The Black Keys' El Camino

First, read this. Great. Now that it's out of the way, we should celebrate how magnificent El Camino is. It's nigh unfathomable that the Black Keys would release this already, as the last phenomenal record, Brothers, was released less than a year ago. This record finds the Black Keys both celebrating this winning streak and providing the rustiest, dustiest, and yet cleanest pop record they've ever made.

El Camino was produced by Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), whose production they eschewed when recording last year's epic, Brothers. Whether it's the influence of Burton (who shares composition credit with Auerbach for every song), or just something else within the Keys, this record is tighter, faster, and hits harder than anything they've done before. It's a bit of surprise, given 2008's Attack and Release, in which Burton's production felt heavy-handed at times, drowning the Keys in sound, who for their part sounded unfocused. Producing Brothers by themselves made sense, even if it could have been sharper. But if Brothers was the rough draft, El Camino is the final draft, the masterpiece, a super-slick hook-heavy album of classic rock and roll.



For all the talk of production, it would mean nothing if guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney didn't have a helluva hand for writing great guitar hooks and thunderous choruses. The best of these is "Run Right Back," where a warped falsetto guitar hook meets a more chugging one layered over it. The song feels new and old all at once, sounding like something that would be used in a Quentin Tarantino film, a classic yet not stale sound.



El Camino rarely pauses for its listeners, though when it does, it does so well. "Little Black Submarine" is the one reprieve from the breakneck pace. It begins with just Auerbach and an acoustic guitar, while an organ fades in eventually. I'm not sure that part is notable, other than the fact that the listener's ears need said reprieve after the first three tracks on album. Then after two minutes, the Keys remember what they set out to do, steal a Tom Petty guitar lick, and bring the noise.



Auerbach, Carney, and Burton do well to mix their highs and lows. On "Hell of a Season," they mix Auerbach's staccato guitar with Carney's heavy drums, and one can't help but stomp one's foot along with the tune, especially in the chorus. "Dead and Gone" uses a similar technique, this time with Auerbach's guitar providing the bass and the treble. Bells and "nah-nah-nah's" help flesh out the track, which is equally foot-stomp worthy in its own right.



I can't pinpoint it, but mostly this record reminds me of Creedence Clearwater Revival (and not this). El Camino is the closest thing I've heard to a classic rock record that's been released in my lifetime, and the best thing I've heard this week.