The Black Keys’ new album ‘El Camino’ starts with the best part, this infectious rhythm, groovy dance orgasm that is ‘Lonely Boy’, and if you think you may have already heard it, you will soon realize you haven’t yet, as this song will undoubtedly appear in the soundtrack of something on TV.
Their signature heavy drum beat is there, like in ‘Dead and Gone’, which bounces all along and sounds like an old classic, but whatever they try to distance themselves from their bombastic fuzzy vintage-bluesy sound, they seem to come back to it at one point. The Black Keys have a sound, it is a good one so who would blame them for trying something different?
But they are actually trying something different here, as there is a large variety inside their sludgy-bluesy sound during the 11 tracks of their seventh studio album. If they want to keep it vintage, as the old van on the cover seems to indicate it, there is much more than expected, and a true extension beyond their usual garage-blues sound. 'El Camino' was produced by Brian 'Danger Mouse' Burton, who, this time, is even helping write all the tracks, and it is not a coincidence if you hear some of Gnarls Barkley’s soul here and there. Take ‘Stop Stop’, if it was not for Auerbach’s recognizable falsetto, we would hardly be in Black Keys’ territory, the beginning belongs to something from the 60s, hard to pinpoint what exactly, while ‘Sister’ has that dry sexy beat of a 80s R&B dance song, and the closer ‘Mind Eraser’ has a surprising layered disco rhythm, as if we were expecting the Bee Gees.
This album is actually all over the place regarding the influences and curiously very focused at the same time, it is focused at pleasing us all. ‘Little Black Submarines’ starts as a folk song, opening with Auerbach’s vocals and an acoustic guitar, and we start to wonder whether they have really trying something different, but the song goes into an expansive, eruptive hard rocking sound two minutes later. I cannot decide whether ‘Gold on the Ceiling’ really makes me think about a Beck’s song (didn’t Danger Mouse produce him too?), ‘Run Right Back’ has this high-pitched-crying guitar layered with an extremely catchy melody, and there is even some woah-woah guitar effects on the more straightforward ‘Money Maker’. ‘Hell of a Season’ has a Clash-esque guitar whereas the song does not really sound like a Clash song, and ‘Nova Baby’ sounds so poppy with its hooked chorus, you may wonder for a few seconds if it is still a Black Keys album.
I am not sure of what this album is at the end, it does not really matter because it is very enjoyable for start to finish, but aren’t the Black Keys trying a little bit too much? ‘El Camino’ will probably be on everybody’s 2011 best album list, but by trying so much in only 11 songs, Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney may have lost part of their identity.