In nearly a decade of working together, Black Keys vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney have developed a working chemistry that has reached a creative peak in their sixth and latest album, a tight, cohesive effort and possibly one of the best this year so far.
Brothers unfolds with gritty grace and swaggers with confident, muscular ease. Vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach spends much of the album wailing about or serenading one woman or another; the love of his life, the messed-up ex in need of love, the women who rejected him or left him or never even noticed he was there, the wild woman he’s compelled to fall for or afraid to fall for or the one he’s obsessing and howling over …
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.