The Black Keys - El Camino [Nonesuch]

7.7

Amidst the avant-garde jazz (Matana Roberts), artistic future garage (James Blake), and a soundtrack to the nostalgia-filled 2011 (Girls), there lies The Black Keys. No band brings back the hard-hitting bluesy garage rock like The Black Keys. Last year’s Brothers really showed The Black Keys can create borderline-raw yet definite and hook-filled rock that really just sounds great. The group’s seventh studio work El Camino is no different. The Black Keys’ multi-instrumentalist Dan Auerbach stated he wanted to follow the lines of Brothers with El Camino, smart move as El Camino is easily one of the most fun, easy-listening albums of 2011.

With production from the up-and-coming Danger Mouse, El Camino is one of The Black Keys’ most clear-cut, indie rock-esque releases to date. Adding elements of not just the traditional garage rocks the Keys have been working through since 2001, but topping off the more upbeat Brothers with simply hard traditionally set rock and roll. Using jangly bells on “Dead and Gone”, surprising acoustic guitar ventures on the front half of “Little Black Submarines”, and even soulful gospel flavored chord progressions on “Stop Stop”; The Black Keys find a nice groove with Danger Mouse and their pure talent at simply making very accessible music.

In a lot of the ways The Black Keys are incredibly smart. Sorting through so many different genre infusions throughout their career and eventually coming to Brothers which finds a nice medium between the hard bluesy garage rock and pop-oriented flavors. Even down to the packaging, Brothers actually won a Grammy last year for it, The Black Keys know how to coordinate themselves to stand out from the rock revivalists of the ‘00s. The early ‘00s were dominated by The White Stripes and The Strokes in the whole hard rock revivalism scene, but the late ‘00s and early ‘10s belongs to The Black Keys easily.

El Camino finds itself as one of 2011’s most conventionally appealing albums. All the songs find themselves as easy sing alongs you blast in your car and really just simply jam out to. You’re not going to find the most compelling or emotionally moving music on El Camino, but when it comes to The Black Keys, who really needs that? The mixture of Danger Mouse and The Black Keys is a smart and enticing one that has really hit off well for both parties and is exciting to see what both can do in the future.