The Black Keys are venturing into dangerous territory. Not musically mind you. If their latest LP Magic Potion really goes anywhere, it's nowhere new. No, the dangerous territory is not the result of a new musical direction but rather from the often perilous jump to a major record label from an indie one. In this case the jump is from Fat Possum Records, home of the group's last two albums, to Elektra subsidiary Nonesuch Records.
A major label means not only raised commercial expectations, but also an entire new set of fan expectations that are often just as bad as they are good. Any change to a band or artist's sound will raise accusations of selling out from a fan base that helped the band get the new record deal in the first place. If you built your indie reputation on intertwining guitars and Lou Reed-esque vocals, and all of a sudden you start writing songs that remind people of The Magnetic Fields, you might face some backlash.
Even if the change is much less drastic than that, a band can expect anything from mild grumbling to fans ready to form pitchfork and torch wielding mobs. Whether or not the new sound is the product of corporate tinkering or just a new artistic direction doesn't matter. Ask Spoon or Metallica. All that matters is you changed from what made you great, and everyone thinks you have more money now. Suspected rich people get very little critical slack.
Which I guess means good news for the Akron, Ohio duo as the Keys have stayed true to their lo-fi, blues-rock sound on their fourth full-length album. In fact, they stay so close to their blues roots it seems they have actually gone backwards since 2004's Rubber Factory. That record was also a collection of short, blues-riff driven songs - even their great interpretation of the Kinks' Act Nice and Gentle fit right in. Potion is more of the same, with seven of the eleven tracks coming in under four minutes, with the one long standout being Goodbye Babylon at 5:56.
Dan Auerbach provides a smooth groove with his guitar work, starting with the attacking, chugging riff of the album opener Just Got To Be, then into an even faster tempo only one track later on the sizzling Your Touch. Fitting the blues staple of devilish lust perfectly, Your Touch features some of Pat Carney's best attacking drum work to go with Auerbach's equally violent guitar playing. It's definitely the most obvious highlight of the album.
After those two scorchers open the album, the Keys move into the slower You're The One. It's tempting to call any slow rock song a ballad, but to do that to any Keys song would be a disservice. Even their slower offerings still hum with garage-band energy.
From here, the Keys settle into a nice pace in the middle of the album with songs like Just A Little Heat, Give Your Heart Away, and Strange Desire. Here we see the only real change from previous records, as the rest of the album is devoid of the up-tempo songs the Keys usually have throughout their recordings. Maybe Dan and Pat thought we needed a break. The album closes very solidly with Elevator, a nice reminder that the Keys have no use for filler material.
Lyrically, the Keys stay close to earthy, gritty side of life with songs about love, lust, family. The songs Modern Times and Goodbye, Babylon however, deal out commentary on current events, a new wrinkle not found on previous records. Modern Times has some vague lines alluding to hurricane Katrina. Goodbye, Babylon criticizes the Iraq War, and seems to be a reference to the destruction of some ancient Babylonian ruins by the U.S. Military since the 2003 invasion.
The band also released an EP earlier in the year, Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough. A tribute to the late bluesman and former lablemate at Fat Possum, the blues covers were apparently also a signal that the Keys had no plans to deviate from their formula. In fact, Chulahoma actually used additional instruments on one track, Have Mercy On Me, meaning technically it had more "growth" than Potion.
That said, Magic Potion is a solid blues-rock record. Though there is nothing "new" musically, listening to the album is like hearing your favorite band play new songs that remind you why this band is your favorite, while at the same time they don't threaten the internal idea you have of what the band is about. Often when a band does go in a new direction, the result can alienate fans used to the band's old sound. Ask Metallica(but not Spoon). I don't see The Black Keys ever making their equivalent to Load. If anything, they seem to be working their way towards being the AC/DC of indie blues-rock. Or now, just blues-rock.
As a bonus, here is a screen shot of my iTune ratings for Magic Potion:
2 comments:
jumping to a major label is about the most stupid thing a rock band do. ask Girls Against Boys. if The Black Keys didn't get to name their terms with Nonesuch, they are now fucked. they could be slaves to Elektra for a long, long time.
If the first record is an indication, I'm guessing they did get their own terms. Nonesuch might be kind of like Unicorn was for MCA in the late seventies and early eighties - a small sub-label none of the higher ups are really paying attention to. Let's hope so( I can't see anyone badmouthing the Keys to Electra or drawing any attention to them).
Post a Comment