record review: The Black Keys - Brothers

The Black Keys almost never could be reduced to releasing albums that are less than forty minutes. They just have a swagger that is too laid back and songs that have too strong a punch to be able to rush through anything. Lucky for us, on their sixth album Brothers, this tendency to take their good ol’ time for artistic expression has taken a dramatic leap to a masterful, soul tinged album containing fifteen songs running just under an hour.

The opener, “Everlasting Light” explodes with such T-Rexian glam rock viciousness that you could easily mistake it for “Mambo Sun”. Continuing in a chronologically backwards fashion through the realms of 60’s r&b and soul, the Black Keys take their blues roots to the max in earnest attempts to unearth overlooked musical stylings of decades past. Needless to say, the two white guys from the midwest do more justice to Black music than 90% of contemporary artists belonging to the African race.

Seamlessly shifting from space-y to jazz-y, Brothers delivers like an improvised live set, with howling guitars interspersed generously throughout. Songs like “The Only One” fearlessly combine house beats and dusty grooves for the astonishingly brisk effect of gospel music drenched in synth. Drawing vocal inspiration from the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dan Auerbach never fails to strike mercilessly at every cell in your body, leaving you helplessly desiring more.

At times, the Black Keys manage to sound spookily airy without emulating the Misfits, by creating a stroll-through-a-graveyard-at-midnight vibe. Overall, the album is a monstrous portion of funk served up on a lively platter of authentic American musicianship, with a Jerry Butler cover thrown in for good measure. Like a world-class city containing all of the exotic offerings of the globe within a few square miles, Brothers has neither a dull moment nor one that you could pass without at least a bit of intrigue.

Highly recommended.
4.5/5

the album drops next Tuesday, 18 May but is currently STREAMING IN FULL HERE. make sure you check it out.

visit them on MYSPACE for tour dates