In their seventh studio release, the Black Keys have stretched far beyond their signature sound in what will be remembered as one of the best albums of the 2011. If prior albums like Brothers or Magic Potion summoned the blues – and I mean the fucking BLUES - as well as any white man can, El Camino is a party album. With a faster tempo and a far more rocking feel than their earlier work, El Camino is likely to open up the band to a whole new audience. If songs from Attack and Release or Brothers made for awesome background music for TV dramas (sad to see you go, ‘Detroit 187’), the newest offering should prove more radio-friendly. Teaming up with acclaimed producer Danger Mouse, Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach have lent their musical sensibilities to tracks replete with handclaps, female background singers, thumping bass lines, and even dance-friendly, almost disco-powered numbers. If anyone could successfully combine elements of Zeppelin IV and the Stones’ Some Girls, it would be these three continuously impressive musical talents. I can already tell that El Camino will occupy not just the jukeboxes of Detroit’s cooler bars, but cars and mp3 players of teen and middle-aged listeners alike. Thus, some are likely to accuse The Black Keys of selling out the more nuanced and counter-intuitive choices that made such acclaim for Brothers or fan devotion for Rubber Factory. But the truth is that sometimes, good music doesn’t need to be all that challenging. From the very first listen, one fact becomes instantly clear – this is a fun album. I credit Danger Mouse with that departure from the more gut wrenching blues sound I generally love from The Black Keys. It’s a welcome push in an unexpected direction.
