fri 13/12/2024

CD: The Black Keys - El Camino | reviews, news & interviews

CD: The Black Keys - El Camino

CD: The Black Keys - El Camino

The boys from Akron exercise their right to party

The Black Keys: carefully constructed feel-good music

For a couple of uber-hip rock nerds, The Black Keys do often still make pretty conventional music. After flirting with hip hop on the Blakroc project (and some of that mentality rubbing off on 2010’s release, Brothers), it’s back to straightforward, if sophisticated, blues-rock for the Ohio-based duo. But if there’s not much that's groundbreaking or experimental here, it’s all pretty likeable stuff: the sort of material that gives unchallenging listening a good name.

By resting the Seventies guitarscape over rhythms that are more Fifties and Sixties in tone, Auerbach and Carney have given El Camino a party feel that only lets up once: “Little Black Submarines”, which starts off like one of the Chili Peppers' acoustic ballads before morphing into something so close to Steve Winwood’s “I Can’t Find my Way Home” I’m surprised the lawyers weren’t called in. Out of the other 10, although you might be hard-pressed to identify individual tracks, you may be left thinking that you are in the presence of as sure-fire a clutch of feel-good mood creators as you’ll find on one record. Of course, the lyrics aren’t up to much (boy/girl stuff seems to make up most of it, but beyond that I couldn’t gather much) but that’s hardly the point.

This record is music to be listened to with the feet as much as the ears. As such, it’s unlikely to alienate those who loved the Grammy-winning, and artistically superior, Brothers, but this is definitely designed to be a lighter product, with even broader appeal. From Patrick Carney’s glasses to the cream-and-tan minivan on the album’s cover, The Black Keys' image and sound seems to be so carefully thought through, you can’t imagine that the boys and their producer, Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, don’t have a millimetre-perfect idea of their demographic. And that audience will surely lap this up.

Watch the video for The Black Keys' new single "Lonely Boy"


 

You may be left thinking that you are in the presence of as sure-fire a clutch of feel-good mood creators as you’ll find on one record

rating

Editor Rating: 
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters