The Black Keys - El Camino
Following the parting of the White siblings last year, the American Blues Rock market was crying out for a replacement duo. Fortunately, in Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, they had a ready made, Grammy Award winning tag team to fill the void.
Following Brothers' 2010 Grammy treble, The Black Keys finally shot to the attention of the mainstream. So it was with raised eyebrows that the follow up was announced a little over a year later. For recent American rock historians, it was a move that no doubt mirrored Kings of Leon's quest for world stadium rock domination in 2008. Fortunately, the Keys newfound commercial fandom hasn't sent them all Followill and has instead resulted in the finest American rock and roll album since BRMC.
On face value, El Camino could be mistaken for a Crazy Heart esque trip down memory lane. All the nostalgic hallmarks are there. The band's old '94 Plymouth Grand Voyager graces the album cover, an ode to the penniless early days, trecking shoulder-to-shoulder for endless hours across country to play to audiences of 25 or less for $50 a pop. Then there's the lyrics about wicked women and lost love, "So you pull my heart out/and I don't mind bleeding" Auerbach hollers on opener and lead single 'Lonely Boy'.
Auerbach and Carney however, are too savvy to indulge themselves in any kind of authenticity nonsense. They once again allowed Danger Mouse to helm the production desk and, rather than aim for Brothers part deux, decided to unload the fuzz guitars and add a whole heap of glam shimmy and stomp to proceedings.
The aforementioned 'Lonely Boy' pulverises you head first into the thick of it. Sounding like a bastardised, scuzzy garage ZZ Top, it's a gloriously fun intro. The pace doesn't relent either, until the compact Led Zep offering of 'Little Black Submarines' in which Auerbach laments that "Everybody knows that a broken heart is blind".
Perhaps most impressively, at a time when the art of the album is becoming secondary in nature to having one or two catchy hit singles, is the fact that pretty much any one of the 11 offerings on El Camino could be a hit in the charts. None more so than the album highlight, 'Gold on the Ceiling'. Perhaps a song with an eye cocked towards the problems material success can bring ("They wanna get my/ Gold on the ceiling/ I ain't blind/ It's just a matter of time/ Before you steal it") it also possesses the finest use of the newly employed backing singers the Keys brought on board for the record. Very much a 'When in Rome' move following the relocation to Nashville for the recording of the album, the backing singers lend a 50's Sun Gospel texture to each track that wouldn't sound out of place supporting Elvis or Johnny Cash.
Given the ease in which hyperbole is tossed around for every flavour of the month nowadays, it's all the more impressive that the Black Keys have managed to produce a bona fide classic modern American rock album. Ok, so it's not pushed them into the bloated Kings of Leon stratosphere, but that's a good thing. El Camino could have so easily been the Keys' Only By The Night, yet they managed to both shun commercially pleasing anthems and smash the Billboard charts. Not bad for two guys with a van from Akron, Ohio.
Until next time,
Keep on Keepin' on,
Baia
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