Brothers, The Black Keys' latest Nonesuch release, is just days away from its May 18 release, and the critical response is already starting to come in.

Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt says that, while the band's Led Zeppelinesque blues-rock sound is still going strong, "on Brothers, there's a new kind of shrewdness, too: real songwriting, and real hooks, beneath all that mondo riffage." She calls particular attention to the songs "Tighten Up" and "Next Girl." You'll find the review at ew.com.

And speaking of those two tracks, while you may have seen their unofficial music videos featuring Frank the Puppet Dinosaur flying around YouTube, there's now a legit video for "Tighten Up" due out on the album's release day. It will premiere May 18 on MySpace. In the mean time, you'll find a 30-second behind-the-scenes preview of the official video on the band's YouTube page.

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Time Out Chicago gives the album a perfect five stars. Reviewer Steve Dollar says, after a thorough listen to the new album, "there’s scarce chance" of the band's "straying from its gutbucket roots," even with the more polished sound of the single, "Tighten Up." Rather, says Dollar, "The Keys are just diversifying."

He cites the album's "’70s AM radio" vibe and the "bewitching" results, summing it all up this way: "It’s a sonic wonderland, we say. As that old blues magus Swamp Dogg would say, they’re not selling out, they’re buying in."

Read the complete five-star review at chicago.timeout.com.

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Consequences of Sound gives the album four stars. "How can modern blues duos produce so much power," wonders reviewer Ted Maider. Brothers, he finds, has "such a blues crunch that you’ll never listen to modern rock or eat cereal the same way again ... This album is one that lives up to the hype of modern day epic blues."

Brothers is an album "that lets people realize modern day music is something we can worship once again," Maider concludes. It's "what we want out of rock music: brilliance and individuality. Thanks, boys."

Read more at consequencesofsound.net.

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In the UK, where the album is out on V2 Records, MusicOMH gives Brothers four stars as well.

"The Black Keys embody the toughest, oldest aspects of the blues and channel them through post-rock modernity without even a hint of sentimentality or nostalgic revivalism," says reviewer Andrew Burgess. "And now they're back with Brothers, the best album yet in their already impressive catalogue."

Burgess describes Brothers, in unmistakeably British fashion, as "a woozy, murky album, fat as a tick, and riled up like a kicked hornets' nest," which seems to be a good thing. The Black Keys "always stood an awkward head and shoulders above their peers," he concludes, "but this time round, they've emerged from their Akron woodshed armed to the teeth and hungry enough to fight for their place at the front of the pack."

The album review can be found online at musicomh.com.