Brothers

“Everlasting Light” and the rest.

This is a quite good album, however, it does get a bit repetitive. I like the Black Keys, but many of the songs on this album - while individually good - sound very similar. Another album that, in my opinion, suffers for going over the hour mark.

I really wish I could give this a 3.5. 3 stars doesn’t do it justice, but I just don’t know if it’s 4 stars good.

Feeling weird about his one. On the one hand I really like all the styes it seems to borrow from; soul, blues, punk, garage. On the other, something seems off. I want to call it contrived, but that doesn't seem entirely fair. I didn't find anything off-putting about it, just didn't find a single thing that really got me excited about listening to it. If I wanted to hear this style of music there are far better options that if I had to guess, were probably this band's inspiration.

I begyndelsen lød det lidt som et lidt mere moderne take på Jack White, men det er lidt mere sin egen stil.
Der er nogle bangers på den her plade, men den bliver tynd mod slutningen.

Top review says it all.

After giving Brothers a good listen. Its actually a pretty great album. The guitar riffs were raspy and bluesy in all the right ways. The singing also was raspy in all of the best ways as well. The music videos were also pretty funny which while not making the album as great as it is, it definitely added to my enjoyment. There also isn't a bad song in sight. Its a great album that is definitely worth a listen.
Best Song: The Go Getter
Worst Song: Black Mud

Somewhat forgettable stuff. Sounds well produced, but it doesn't evoke significant emotion in me.

Solid album. Several radio hits. Couple more soulful tunes towards the end. Howling for You is probably my favorite track.
I’ll give it 6.5/10

This is a solid record for sure. I don't get why it kind of gets a lot of hate for being 'white guy blues'. It's not like they're trying to be BB King or Muddy Waters. I think I like El Camino better but this is a super fun album - great sound, good songs, good riffs, good drums. I dig it. Would absolutely play this one again.

Dan Auerbach's claim that he "didn't know who the White Stripes were" when he and Patrick started the Black Keys is so full of shit. There's no chance in hell they weren't aware of another midwestern blues-infused two-piece that was already beginning to hit the mainstream. Dan, in general, is not a very reliable or trustworthy person, but that's another story for another day.

That all said, starting around their third album, the Keys did carve out a slightly different niche for themselves, honing in a bit more on subtle psychedelic and R&B influences in contrast to some of the Stripes' punkier and more Americana flourishes. In my opinion, they hit their peak on the album before this one, Attack & Release, but Brothers is still pretty great. There are more than a few solid bluesier tunes - I'm especially partial to the swampy "She's Long Gone" and "Ten Cent Pistol" - that sit nicely alongside the more soulful "Everlasting Light" and "The Only One". "Sinister Kid" has a surprisingly good groove (surprising because Patrick Carney is truly not that great of a drummer half the time), "Next Girl" and "Tighten Up" are dependable singles, and even the atmospheric instrumental "Black Mud" is pretty damn cool.

I think "Howlin' for You" works totally fine in context with the rest of the album, but it does telegraph the direction they're about to go in - a direction that has given them a mostly deserved reputation. Additionally, at least 3-4 tracks could have easily been left off. But I'll stand by my defense of this one (as well as Attack & Release and Rubber Factory), and I'll forever have good memories of the show I saw on this tour.

4/5

If we think of classic rock as a genre rather than era, this album is one of the few that makes the case that their is some continued relevance and room for new contributions to the genre in the 2010s beyond bar bands and tribute acts. Part of the early 2000s rock revival indie era, The Black Keys along with the White Stripes, BRMC, Hives etc kept trying to make garage happen again. They're my favorite of that cluster of bands, and this is both their commercial breakthrough and fullest realization of that vision.

If you're going to be a guitar/drum duo, both of those parts need to be top tier, and this album pulls it off with flair. Even if you've never heard this, it feels very familiar: there's nothing super original in it, but the guitar work is a masterful and tasteful display of rock playing that's digested the rock canon - a huge range of tones (fuzzy, overdriven, bright clean, heavy, soaring, jangly, muted), rhythm parts that establish a solid groove and keep things interesting with fills and licks without being distracting or showy, some ripping solos that don't go on too long, total command of the pedal board with dialed in delays/reverb, textural tremelo, whooshing phasers/flange and a bit of wah. There's room left over to fill in with fun bass/organ parts to round out the sound. The drums are similar - nothing spectactular but perfectly in the pocket and committed to a groove. The vocals are played like a guitar on the edge of breakup, pushing into the red for a bit of scuzz around the edges of the verging on falsetto belted out impassioned delivery.

Favorites: Ten Cent Pistol, Sinister Kid, Tighten Up, Black Mud

Favourite songs: Howlin' For You, Tighten Up, She's Long Gone, Next Girl, Sinister Kid, Everlasting Light, Ten Cent Pistol

Least favourite songs: Unknown Brother

4/5

Het is wat moeilijk te luisteren, zakt wat weg naar de achtergrond. Maar zonder echt te herinneren wat ik hoor, vind ik het toch jammer dat het album voorbij is. Een echte handtekening heeft het niet, het heeft wat rock, wat pop, wat blues, wat jazz. En toch...als Spotify mij later weer een nummer van hen voorschotelt, proef ik direct dat het van deze Zwarte Toetsen is. Wat is dat toch? Eigenlijk zijn albums die die vraag oproepen het leukst om te ontdekken in de 1001.

3.33 average per track. Consistent with my overall feeling, very average.

Strangely, I spent most of listening to this album reading up about the artwork and packaging (with its heat-sensitive labelling), I didn't pay much attention to the music itself - it didn't upset me, so must have been alright, bit long though. 2.5

There's some nice songs in here, and the album as a whole is pretty solid. I like their phat guitar tones in particular. I just think some of their other albums are a bit more exciting.

3.5 rounded down

A pretty enjoyable listen.

Consistently good, but falls just a wee bit short of great, in my opinion. Wear their influences on their sleeves, in a good way, but I hoped for more from them, perhaps because I had liked everything I had heard from them previously. A solid 4 stars though, which is better than most!

Meh

Black Keys are generally pretty fun, kinda wear down over the course of a whole album. 2010's kind of the tail end for this sort of sound being fashionable, the bass is mixed more heavily, we're not quite to the point historically of dubstep being shoved in everyone's faces for half a decade, but it's hard not to think about that coming as this starts to die off