Today's the day. April Fool's, yes, but also the day Attack & Release, The Black Keys' latest, hits stores. The New York Sun says "Attack & Release houses the most stylistically diverse set of songs the band has released to date."New York Daily News says "the duo perfectly calibrate richer sounds and fuller melodies with their usual killer riffs and scathing rhythms." Scripps Howard gives the album four stars.
Today's the day. April Fool's, yes, but also the day Attack & Release, The Black Keys' latest, hits stores and is available for download. Visit the Nonesuch Store for the CD+MP3 now or click on the link at the end of this post to add them to your Shopping Cart now.
The New York Sun's Matthew Oshinsky says that throughout their career, Pat and Dan "have consistently churned out the best blues music of the 21st century from their basement in Akron." And on the new record, produced by Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse), the band's "desire to stretch the bounds of the two-man approach to dirty rock 'n' roll is clear ... Attack & Release houses the most stylistically diverse set of songs the band has released to date."
Oshinsky points in particular to the track "Psychotic Girl" as exemplary of the band's sound, writing that it "rides a strolling Southern bass riff and a haunting piano line to doleful wonder, tugging pained howls from Mr. Auerbach's preternaturally soulful voice and evoking a classic [Ike] Turner contemporary, Screamin' Jay Hawkins." You can listen to the tune at nonesuch.com/theblackkeys.
To read Oshinsky's review, visit www2.nysun.com.
New York Daily News Jim Farber also recognizes the boundary-pushing efforts of the new record and suggests that when confronting the balance "between the pure and the nuanced," The Black Keys "face down that quandary squarely---and win resoundingly."
Farber recognizes the Danger Mouse influence in the producer's assisting "the duo perfectly calibrate richer sounds and fuller melodies with their usual killer riffs and scathing rhythms."
He references Dan's unmistakable voice as well, writing:
Auerbach's vocals retain their erotic charge. He's got the brio of a young Paul Rodgers. Likewise, his ripped riffs have the lean kick of that singer's early band Free. Small wonder that no matter how many new sonic colors break up the Keys' sound, they never lose their essential hue.
To read the review, visit nydailynews.com.
Pitchfork sees Danger Mouse's contribution where the producer "colors the band's no-frills narratives with futuristic accents or, on the opposite end, rural flourishes of psychedelia and folk." Reviewer Roque Strew says of the album: "A sequence of slow burns, the record's tempos allow you to relish the details and the textures." He points out the song "Remember When (Side A)," which, "with its eddies of reverb, envisions nostalgia as something dim and meticulously crafted, with a touch of the fantastic." Read that review at pitchforkmedia.com.
The Scripps Howard News Service gives the album four stars, with reviewer Chuck Campbell assuring fans that the guys have hardly lost their gritty sound with the Danger Mouse touch:
Timeless chugging and propulsion drive the group's primal blues-rock, and Auerbach is as compelling and soulful as a man of few words can be ... [T]he raw-to-the-bone music on Attack & Release conveys all the Black Keys need to get across.
To read that review, visit scrippsnews.com.
Yesterday, the duo visited the KEXP studios in Los Angeles to perform on Morning Becomes Eclectic and talk with the show's host, Nic Harcourt, about the making of the new album. You can watch them perform "I Got Mine" and listen to the segment in its entirety at kcrwmusicnews.vox.com.
