With the help of Producer Danger Mouse, Akron, Ohio duo the Black Keys have put out their seventh album “El Camino” and for them, the seventh time seems to be the charm. With “Lonely Boy” climbing charts everywhere, they have finally scored a household name.
The entire album makes me want to go out in a Pulp Fiction wig, buy a gun and start smoking cigarettes again. It is gritty and genuine from start to finish, not to mention, a music supervisor’s wet dream. I can hear the soundtrack negotiations for nearly every song, specifically “Sister”, to liven up a Western.
“Dead and Gone” has a cheerleader-ish zeal and persistence in its energetic beats and could possibly win the next single spot. To round out the trifecta, is both “Hell of a Season” and “Run Right Back” which are solid competition for the trophy.
“Gold on the Ceiling” starts off with a little Alice Cooper “School’s Out” vibe and then comes up from the Seventies (as much as the whole album ever really comes out of the Seventies) to a bluesy, country finish. “Nova Baby” really reminds me of Dustin Kensrue’s “I Knew You Before”, which only made me like it more. “Little Black Submarine” has that ballsy twist we all love about psychological thrillers; it starts with an acoustic ballad that you didn’t see coming and then changes all emotion midway through. Best lyrics of the album can be found there: “Oh, can it be, the voices calling me, They get lost and out of time, I should’ve seen it go But everybody knows That a broken heart is blind”.
We know for sure every mustached face Hipster in Brooklyn will buy this album, the point is that other people will to. The first album in a while that makes you want to go old school and purchase a full cd instead of a single.
By Amanda Palasciano