THE BLACK KEYS
Attack & Release
(Nonesuch 2008)
The Black Keys seemed to linger in a vacuum absent of creativity for the last couple of years, whilst the deliciously dirty ‘Thickfreakness’ of 2003 lifted the sweetly minimalist duo into the minds of independent music listeners, the warmly received ‘Rubber Factory’ potentially formed the precarious pinnacle. With a tendency to stick to their own simple analogue isolation, The Keys sought change in the form of versatile producers Danger Mouse and Mr. Ike Turner (who passed away half way through recording-R.I.P), a seemingly crazy combination.
Attack & Release ups the creativity, cleans up the guitars but then covers them in thick reverb and tremolo, and includes a plethora of traditionally ‘un-bluesy’ instruments and effects, all without moving too dramatically away from the likeable Black Keys structure and style.
I Got Mine, Strange Times, and Remember When {Side B} throws down hard the old school Black Keys riffage in a kind of re-introduction to the past before the songs themselves and then the album morph into a modern creature.
The unearthly backing vocals, combined with the assortment of instrumentation and effects, give the band that once sounded oh so ‘backwater cool’ a brand new modern twist on traditional delta blues themes. But quite incredibly at the same time, make the duo sound more retro than ever before. The only analogy that comes to mind is like retro blues on a neighboring planet.
It makes for a wicked listen, from jump around rock to psychedelic folk. Where the once endearing 1 + 1 guitar and drums package may have run its course, the freaky and ghostly sounds littered throughout Attack and Release bring The Black Keys back from the dead. Thing’s aint like they used to be. Shit, it even has panpipes.
Words by Dan
THE MIGHTY ROARS
Swine And Cockerel
(One Little Indian/Creative Vibes)
Word to the wise, indie kids: make sure you have a box of tissues handy when you first listen to this album, because it’s likely to make you cream your pants. Taking their angular guitar cues from The Pixies, adding some Brit-punk urgency and completing the package with the adrenalised vocals of Swedish singer/bassist Lara Granqvist, The Mighty Roars are basically as cool as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would be if Karen O had died of a heroin overdose before anyone you knew had ever heard of them.
Daddy Oh marries manic pop energy with agitated guitar, Kiss It slaps you across the face until you can’t help but grin, while the stripped back Wish Everything proves that it’s not all danger by putting on a face you could take home to mum.
The album’s full of left-of-centre rock gems like Bag It Up – and by the time it ends with Lara yelping Whip My Bitch, you’d better hope that you took my advice about those tissues.
Words by Oh-Banger |
