Review: The Black Keys, Turn Blue

By Emmett H Robinson Smith

Since the release of El Camino, which turns three years old this coming December, Akron duo the Black Keys have been through a lot. Patrick Carney, the outspoken Keys drummer, found himself confronted on Twitter by millions of adolescent Justin Bieber fans for his words about the controversial pop star. Perhaps more significantly, however, Dan Auerbach, the arguable brains behind the Keys operation, went through a divorce, and it shows on the band’s new album Turn Blue. His lyrics on the LP are more full of “woman trouble” subject matter than ever. “Looking back on where we used to be / Everything was clear, but still I refused to see / Hearts began to rust / The diamond turned to dust” Auerbach admits on “Bullet in the Brain”. Indeed, blue is the operative mood on the bulk of the album’s tracks.

El Camino was the sound of a group struggling to find a balance between staying true to their roots as old-school blues-rock artists and bolstering their newfound popularity, mainly due to the excellent single “Tighten Up” from their sprawlingly diverse 2010 album Brothers. El Camino was a tight, unified, albeit safe, and at times tepid, collection of songs that leaned more towards the mainstream than the Keys ever had before: Auerbach called the album “too manicured” in a recent Rolling Stone interview. Thusly, it’s exciting to hear the duo explore new styles and instrumentation on their latest effort. The epic “Weight of Love” is the bold album opener, and it becomes clear almost immediately that new musical directions will be a feature. A whistling, ghostly organ and pinging bells help to create a lush, richly textured soundscape that complements the haunting melody of the chorus. The song’s sheer length – 6:50 – is significant in itself, as the Black Keys aren’t known for making tracks much longer than four minutes apiece.

Much of the credit for the musicality of Turn Blue can be given to Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse, who has produced their last four albums to varying effect. On this project however, it sounds as though the visions of both parties have found a way to play off each other in a natural way. The classic blues riffs of the Keys’ earlier albums are still intact, but are made to sound fresh with spacey, echoing accompaniment. Take the title track, for instance. Auerbach’s bluesy riff is complemented with booming toms, crescendoing strings and a quickly repeating one-note bass line.  This is a prime example of the successful marriage between Burton’s and the Black Keys’ ideas.

Things do get sluggish in the middle of the album. “Year In Review” is an overly monochromatic throwaway which features Auerbach vaguely lamenting his women troubles with very general lines as a result: “You don't wanna know more/And you've been down this road before/So leave it alone/Just leave it alone”. The more serious problem here, though, is the monotony of the tune. The verse and chorus melody is on the same note, which, by the two-minute mark, becomes tiresome, and, worse, annoying. “It’s Up to You Now” inexplicably takes a turn for the lethargic worse after the up-tempo riff becomes exhausted. You can almost hear the Keys thinking, “okay, it’s getting boring. We should probably change it here”.

However, Turn Blue’s final batch of songs is strong. “Waiting on Words” is an old-school Who-like ballad, and Auerbach’s falsetto sounds gorgeous over the delicate chord progressions of the chorus. “In Our Prime” begins surprisingly stripped down compared to many other tracks on the album, and there are hints of blues guitar that creep into a groove which has the Beatles written all over it. However, the song builds into a blazing guitar-and-organ-solo epic, complete with a string section and mallets. Auerbach’s lyrics are particularly strong here, too, and carry a nostalgic tone that plays strongly to the placement of the song as one of the album’s final tracks: “Like every lover hovers in my mind / We made our mark when we were in our prime / The house, it burned, but nothing there was mine / We had it all when we were in our prime”, he sings.

One of the most musically courageous and exciting releases of 2013, Kanye West’s Yeezus, was for the most part an assault of harsh, industrial “hip-hop”, to use the term very loosely. However, the final track took listeners by surprise: In the context of an album so dedicated to pushing the boundaries of conventional hip-hop, the last song, “Bound 2”, was a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. It was classic Kanye, featuring his staple soul-sampling which made him so popular in the first place, as well as his trademark simple, wry lyrics. This phenomenon is mirrored in Turn Blue. With their most musically explorative collection to date, they end the album with a blast of retro, balls-out rock n’ roll in “Gotta Get Away”. It’s El Camino again, but tighter, more singable, and more cruise-down-the-highway-with-your-speakers-blasting, which makes for a hugely effective closer for a work that is largely a textural “headphones album”. It’s a satisfying ending that tells us that the Keys aren’t taking themselves too seriously, and that they still know how to rock in the classic sense of the word.

The Black Keys have created something special with Turn Blue, with a huge help from producer Brian Burton. The arrangements are rich and beguiling, and Auerbach’s lyrics shine through with this accompaniment. Despite some missteps, the duo has taken a bold step in a new direction without sacrificing their roots. The Black Keys are back.