This article is reviewing the newish black keys album, el camino.
I have been a fan of the black keys ever since I first heard their blusey guitar riffs way back in 2007, with their album Attack and Release.I remember listening to that album my senior year of high school and listening to their hit single “Strange Times”, and thinking I can definitely get behind this bands sound. What drew me into this bands style was their mix of blues and rock to create a unique sound, very 1970s rock esque. The Black Keys are unique in their musical style and the way they play just two guys Dan Auerbach who does guitar and vocals, and Patrick Carney on the drums.
Their newish album El Camino was released in January, and after listened to it all the way through several times now I believe I am qualified to give an album review. While not my favorite Black Keys album overall(that honor would go to their Brothers album of 2010), I really enjoyed this latest release. The thing about this album is it has the usual bluesy catchy songs of past albums in the likes of Little Black Submarines, and Lonely Boy, but it also experiments with some techno and some fusion in catchy songs like Nova Baby and Hell of a Season.
The album goes from an energetic starting point in Lonely Boy, to slower songs in Dead and Gone, and Gold on the Ceiling. Then it explodes into an energetic guitar ballad very Zeppelin like in Little Black Submarines, which was my favorite song of the cd. The song starts off slow and slowly builds up its pace until it hits a point about halfway through when it just lets go with some sick guitar solos and good drum beats.
After the awesomesauce that was Submarines, it then slows down with Money Maker, Run Right Back, Sister, and Hell of a Season. With the exception of Hell of a Season I thought this part of the cd was not very good, the songs lacking that traditional Keys catchy drum beats and guitar riffing.
Good news is that the album puts itself back into gear for the last three songs, with all three of them being excellent from the halting guitar of Stop Stop, to the techno infused Nova Baby to the finale Mind Eraser.
Mind Eraser was a very good classic rock sounding song to end the cd on, and my second favorite song of the album with great haunting vocals and excellent guitar.
All in all, my second favorite Black Keys cd after 2010s phenomenal Brothers, the cd started out well enough with Lonely Boy, then slowed down, picked up in the middle with the amazing Little Black Submarines, and then slowed again, but picked it back up for the excellent trio of songs at the end toped off by an the awesome Mind Eraser.
All in all out of 10, I would give this album a 9, rating it a very good album, with the exception of about three lackluster songs most of the songs on this cd hit hard and are excellent, while overall this cd is not full of as many hits as Brothers, you cant fault the Keys for not making as good a cd as that amazing grammy award winning one.
So ya, solid 9s across the board, definitely worth a listen to readers, so go out and get it you can buy it at most music stores in the world I would assume, and there is always iTunes, and downloading it in other ways for all you naughty readers out there.
edit: I found the entire album for free on youtube for yall, you can listen to it in full, even listed are the song titles, and what time they start in the hour long playthrough. enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrC08CsIOoM
Until next time readers.
#justin
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