THE BLACK KEYS

El Camino
Nonesuch / Warner

El Camino is the seventh full-length album from the industry’s hardest working duo, The Black Keys. Like every Keys release it has hooks that dig deep and stay with you, but this album marks a large step in a different sound. Instead of influences like Junior Kimbrough and Muddy Waters, El Camino is awash with slices of The Clash, T-Rex, and Zeppelin, and is the first Keys album to really push outside of their blues roots.

Lonely Boy opens up the album with a growling, pitch dive-bombing guitar riff, purring to life like the car the album title conjures up. Straight out of the gate this sounds like no other Black Keys album before it. A ‘70s inspired, warbling keyboard soon backs it up and brings with it a sound that feels most like the lads’ previous work with Danger Mouse at the helm, 2008’s Attack & Release.

In a nice little musical manoeuvre second track Dead & Gone follows Lonely Boy beautifully with a feeling that echoes the first track, almost like a reprise. But the album’s change in rhythm, from the band’s usual swinging blues beat to a more conventional rock beat, makes every song a new Keys experience.

Opening with an acoustic guitar, Little Black Submarine sounds very much like a Led Zeppelin stadium rock piece, with easily one of the most catchy choruses Dan Auerbach has ever written.

While the last two albums have each pushed the band in a slightly new direction, El Camino is most assuredly a large step towards a fresh new sound.

_TOM VARIAN