The Black Keys – Brothers (Nonesuch/Universal)

October 8, 2014

Itโ€™s easy to appreciate the grain in the sound The Black Keys manage to extract on this, the duoโ€™s latest piece of arch art-blues. That, and the beautifully wonky lumbering grooves that they construct.

Brothers is an album of many very short tracks, most of which have a delicious sound, but few of which evolve into songs worth deliberating over, worth getting to know. That makes it a bit of a dweeb-fest, the sort of record that musical trainspotters fetishize, rather than a good album per se.

Fans wonโ€™t be disappointed, but as much as I respect the work of musical alchemists trying to create mutant strains that never existed in real time (in this case a canny combo of blues, rock and funk), itโ€™s hard to get too excited without tracks that have a sense of being, of being on a journey, with some place to go.

Much has been made of the fact that this was recorded at the famed Muscle Shoals studio, but itโ€™s not the characteristic warmth of the studioโ€™s classic productions that comes through. Instead, theirs is an often dark, psychedelic groove that writhes around in the trails left by early Funkadelic, mixes it with a bit of Blue Cheer power-chording, and a dollop of Blaxploitation musical cinema.

Brothers can be enjoyed on its own terms, but those terms are limited. GARY STEEL

Sound = 4

Music = 3

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Steel has been penning his pungent prose for 40 years for publications too numerous to mention, most of them consigned to the annals of history. He is Witchdoctor's Editor-In-Chief/Music and Film Editor. He has strong opinions and remains unrepentant. Steel's full bio can be found here

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