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.

The Black Keys are the Sad Keys

I have no idea what it is like to write, record, and release a piece of music, so I'm starting from a position of ignorance here. That said, if I was to do so, my first objective would be to have as many people hear that music as possible. So I was disappointed to learn last week that the Black Keys would not be allowing their new record, El Camino, to be streamed on music services such as MOG and Spotify.

The Black Keys are the Sad Keys

I have no idea what it is like to write, record, and release a piece of music, so I'm starting from a position of ignorance here. That said, if I was to do so, my first objective would be to have as many people hear that music as possible. So I was disappointed to learn last week that the Black Keys would not be allowing their new record, El Camino, to be streamed on music services such as MOG and Spotify.

A Question of Thunder

Dan Auerbach-Keep It Hid

When looking at the lineup of Dan Auerbach's main band, The Black Keys, one has to wonder how a solo record by Auerbach, the lead singer and guitarist in the two piece band (the other person being the drummer, Pat Carney), would be any different from any other The Black Keys record. And so, Keep It Hid is the answer.

It is immediately apparent that the texture, and more importantly, the thunder, provided by Pat Carney is missing from this record. The upside to this, however, is that we get to witness some pure class songwriting from Auerbach. The downside, as I already hinted at, is that there is something missing which Carney must provide on the Keys records. The result is a number of mid-tempo rockers that don't offend, but don't excite either. I would skip the following: Heartbroken, in Desrepair, When the Night Comes, and The Prowl.

The bright spots are Trouble Weighs a Ton, a slow blues number which opens the record, and I Want Some More, which finds Auerbach using a distorted organ to great effect. Auerbach also channels a bit of Creedence and comes out sounding strong on tracks like Mean Monsoon and When I Left the Room. The rest of the album are Zeppelin blues retreads, which, if you're into that type of thing (and I am), are better than anything similar out there right now. Right, so bottom line here depends on how you feel about some classic rock, namely CCR and Zepp. You like that, you probably like this.