El Camino
The Black Keys
Nonesuch Records
release date December 2, 2011
RecklessRockstar review
The duo of guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and producer/drummer Patrick Carney from the small city of Akron Ohio have made quite a name for themselves since their first release, The Big Come Up. Winning 3 Grammy awards and nominated for 3 more in 2011, working with renown producer Danger Mouse on 2 of their 7 albums (including El Camino), making a collaboration album Blakroc, and also selling 2 million albums since they first stepped onto the music scene, The Black Keys newest album is nothing less than stellar and shows they can expand creatively to new heights.
El Camino is comprised of 11 unique yet modern hard-hitting tracks and every single one of them is catchy. For all the fans of the gritty and rough sounding Black Keys, be wary that this album is more of a hybrid of styles and less of the blues/rock sound, although it may be expected since their first collaboration with Danger Mouse, Attack and Release was completely different from what fans were expecting. This album has much of the same high quality production that Danger Mouse had on Attack and Release so if you can truly appreciate how an artist evolves from one sound and likes to experiment with other styles then this album should be one your top 5 albums of 2011.
The albums single “Lonely Boy” is the opening track and really gives you a feel for the rest of the album. You’ll immediately grab the new vibe The Black Keys have picked up but you can still feel the connection to their roots. Fans will reminisce of Led Zeppelin on the track “Little Black Submarines”, with the opening slow acoustic guitar from Auerbach that soon becomes a hard rocking, head nodding song that Zeppelin became famous for. The song really shows off the guitar skills of Auerbach. The most surprising track on this album is probably “Nova Baby” solely because of the added synth from Danger Mouse that really leaves you feeling like you’re listening to a Strokes song. The caboose track is “Mind Eraser.” One listen to this track will keep you coming back for more due to the funky bass line that really mesmerizes. The Black Keys aren’t really known for their explosive bass lines or even having a bass line but they really did something special with this song.
Overall, this is one of The Black Key’s best albums even with their tweaked sound. With 11 tracks not one leaves you wondering, “what were they thinking” or “what is this garbage” something really hard to come by these days in the music business. As mentioned before, fans of their old style may be disappointed with this album but for a fan of evolving sound or just a casual listener this is a fantastic album sure to be one of the best of 2011.
RATING
out of 10
10 Production
9.5 Creativity
7.0 Content
9.0 Lasting Appeal
| Overall 8.9 (out of 10) | Bombastic! |
The Black Keys – El Camino
All songs written and composed by Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney, and Brian Burton.
1. Lonely Boy
2. Dead and Gone
3. Gold on the Ceiling
4. Little Black Submarines
5. Money Maker
6. Run Right Back
7. Sister
8. Hell of a Season
9. Stop Stop
10. Nova Baby
11. Mind Eraser