Attack and Release

The fifth album from one of my favorite bands The Black Keys is awesome. A two piece group usually made up of crunchy blues guitars and solid drumming has taken somewhat of a new direction. Dangermouse a.k.a. Brian Burton, a.k.a. Half of Gnarls Barkley (He is the white guy). Was set to produce this album. Originally set to be an album that the Keys were going to do for Ike Turner (Tina Turners Ex-husband). The Keys were going to do al the music and Ike was going to sing. Unfortunately Ike died before they could even start. They had sent Brian all this stuff and he said lets go to work so they did. All previous efforts have been produced by the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney a.k.a. The Black Keys this was the first time an outsider had worked with them. Past albums were very indie sounding with a sort of new recording style called medium-fi. Which contains “one part broke ass shit, and one part new ass shit.” It was ingenious because it sounded like an older recording. The style of blues that Pat and Dan make is similar to that of the delta, Muddy Waters and, The Mississippi All-stars. Allot of emotion covered in Textures of screaming guitar. Dangermouse did an excellent job. He maintained the sound and essence of Medium-Fi while adding little elements to make the album sound more full. Sometimes the sparse arrangements…you know guitar and drums could sound a little empty but when you turn it up to 11 it sounds a little more full. Dan’s vocals are really upfront as well. He has a great blues voice that is part of what I like so much about this band. Favorite song is the first one All You Ever Wanted. Also Remember When (side A) & (side B) are great. Also reminiscent of the era when you had to flip your record over to continue the music. Things Aint Like They Used to Be is the last song on the album and AWESOME! Slow jam and I love the slow jam. It has this really cool organ in it and the girl singing back up is some teenage girl Jessica Lea Mayfield. She really compliments Dan. I have to say that I know I’m being quite technical so here is the part where I gush. The keys are a great band and one of the few upbeat and fast paced bands I actually listen to. I own all of their albums and a few Ep’s. On the shuffle I run to is every Keys album. I got a chance to see them in Austin. It was so kick ass! I spoke with Patrick Carney the drummer for a bit. I was living up in Lubbock at the time and driving from Lubbock to Austin is quite a hike. I told him where I lived and he said that’s where Buddy Holly’s from. We then proceeded to talk about Buddy a bit. Then he said hey man thanks for coming all this way. Dan and I really appreciate it. I will be a Black Keys fan for life after that! They will never be the kind of band to sell out arenas but big theatres probably. All in all a really great band and sound. Check them out I obviously highly recommend it!