The Black Keys – Brothers
(Nonesuch)
Words: James Passarelli
My greatest fear about a band I love embarking on a side project is that they might confuse their side project with their original act. So, I was simultaneously anxious for and skeptical of the Black Keys’ first release since their 2009 Blakroc hip-hop collaboration debut. And while this album is sure to receive mixed reviews, one thing is certain: it won’t take more than a couple listens to know which songs you like and which ones you could do without.
If I lacked a better word, I might say the Black Keys are getting too “cute”, but there are plenty of better words to describe the Akron twosome’s latest album: pristine, polished, intricate – in short, everything that the Black Keys are not. I’d like to think that over-production is not an inevitable consequence of increased exposure and a higher income, but history is not on my side. There’s nothing wrong with the Black Keys using their available resources to create a more polished sound – the fault lies in the extent of that polishing. And it’s not just over-production that bogs Brothers down, but an entire reformation of their style.
We could look at this as a kind of “Dylan goes electric” syndrome, in which the Keys alienate old-time fans with a bold, new sound. Except for the fact that the Black Keys’ very purpose was to bring us back to the time before those new sounds existed. The change isn’t really startlingly new. The Keys implemented a number of new elements in 2008’s Attack and Release, from higher production to the wide array of instrumental additions (mandolin on “Psychotic Girl”, flute on “Same Old Thing”, organ and small hints of synth throughout the album). And they worked, for two reasons, the first being that they were balanced with more old-fashioned, gritty tracks like “I Got Mine”, “Remember When (Side B)”, and “Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be.” And second, the changes were subtle. The new changes are anything but subtle, and the boys give us fewer and fewer links to their less-refined past.
Opener “Everlasting Light” kicks off with a hip-hop beat and an Auerbach falsetto, something that hasn’t appeared until now. “Next Girl” follows, a song with similarly big beats, in which Auerbach vows, “my next girl will be nothing like my ex-girl. I made mistakes back then. I’ll never do it again.” They’re both perfectly decent songs, but they come off a bit cheap and dull when put up against any tracks from the first half of the decade. “Howlin’ for You” begins with Gary Glitter-esque drums (the first five seconds of the song sound nearly identical to “Rock and Roll Part 2”) and ultimately falls flat with its repeated background “da da da dat da”s. “Sinister Kid” shows promise, as Auerbach begins, “well the crooks are out/and the streets are gray/you know I wouldn’t have it any other way/Your mother’s words/they’re ringing still/but your mother don’t pay our bills”, but the music fails to live up to the menacing tone. “The Only One” is good enough, but drags on about two minutes longer than the three-minute slot in which it could have worked.
If you’ll believe me after all that, though, the album isn’t bad at all, and it contains some excellent tracks. The “hi-ho” whistles and rhythmic dance riffs on the album’s first single “Tighten Up” make it one of the grooviest tracks of 2010. You’ll take equal pleasure in the dirty blues of “Ten Cent Pistol”, and bass-heavy “I’m Not the One” sees Auerbach in an unusually and pleasantly powerful role. “Well, like a toy to a kid/I said, ‘jump’/and momma, you did,” sings a man who usually falls victim to love in his songs. And perhaps the most rewarding parts of the album are the last two tracks. Faithful Jerry Butler cover “Never Gonna Give You Up” sounds more like it could have come from a Delfonics catalogue, Auerbach doing his best Diana Ross impression to a background of old R&B bells. And it closes out with the country-tinged “These Days”, one of the few songs that sees the duo musically vulnerable, as well as lyrically.
Final conclusion: the Black Keys didn’t confuse themselves with Blakroc. There are a lot of ideas on Brothers. But that’s not where the problems arise. The album is smooth and well organized. It’s not even that they changed their style – Brothers is at its best when it diverges the most from the traditional Keys style. It’s just that there’s a danger with any risk like the one Auerbach and Carney took here: the danger of trading style for substance.
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