ALBUM REVIEW: “Brothers” by The Black Keys

Artist: The Black Keys
Album: Brothers
Label: Nonesuch
Rating: 9.4/10

The Black Keys have been together for nearly a decade now.  For most of that time, they have deservedly or not been standing in the shadow of the other (and more commercially successful) blues-based duo, the White Stripes. 

This is their watershed record. No longer can anyone compare the two outfits, The Black Keys just demolish them now.  

Sporting a whopping 15 tracks (and not a bum one among them), “Brothers” seems to get stronger with each song.  Every riff, every beat, every melody exudes a vitality that is contagious. 

Most exceptional though, is the diversity of the material.  Songs like the minor key pop confection of “Tighten Up” (produced by Danger Mouse) stand shoulder to shoulder with raw blues of “Howlin for You”, the summery Motown inspired “Never Gonna Give you Up” and the awesome 70s jamming of the fantastic little instrumental “Black Mud”.

On top of it all it’s produced to perfection by drummer, Patrick Carney.  Strings accentuate on numbers, organs gurgle on others and all throughout the guitar tones are killer; searing, bombastic, crunchy goodness.

Guitar/vocalist Dan Auerbach (the other half of the pair) is no slouch either.  His singing is inspired and varied, ranging from the moody falsetto of “The Only One” to the soulful “Sinister Kid” to the growling yowlp of the aforementioned “Howlin”, he truly rocks the microphone on this collection.

Nothing much left to say except get this album now, definitely the cream of the crop of record releases so far this year.