It is an idea that gets lobbied around a lot that music is dead. While this is never true, it does seem to be the case for a lot of mainstream rock music, which currently is suffering from a folk music identity crisis. The songs that are vibrant with energy lack the passion to compensate and for most people, the disposable nature of downloading music, even legally, has very little immediacy. Music is often seen as a product, which tarnishes the impact that rock music once had in a time where nobody knows your name. However, among the crop is the survivors The Black Keys, who have risen to prominence with "Brothers" and infected commercialism with their last album "El Camino," which was a departure from their gritty, lo-fi production values. With their follow-up "Turn Blue," they choose to challenge music again by going back to their patented sludgy blues sound... with a little help from Danger Mouse and his psychedelic keyboard.
There is a reason that The Black Keys have prevailed, but it doesn't entirely make sense. Their music is pure unadulterated grittiness. They aren't concerned with writing three minute ditties. If that was the case, the opening track "Weight of Love" would have been half its run time (6 minutes, 50 seconds) and not concerned of hearkening back to the classic rock style of long, mystical intros and eerie harmonies over the chorus. In fact, the first two songs on this 11 track album take up over 10 minutes of the run time.
It works because what the band has done is create a hypnotic approach to the genre. Much like the album's art work, the rhythms play with the idea of transcendental meditation through blues music. It plays out slowly, only allowing for the vocals to come in once everything else reaches a fulfilling ear worm to the listener's subconsciousness. In fact, it is likely that the whole packaging of the album is meant to be an experiment with the spiral constantly spinning as the lead single "Fever" plays with its muddled vocal production and the patented synthetic piano playing a catchy riff.
Even if the album isn't musically similar to "El Camino," it does share an element that has made them memorable. The vivacious choruses of love's struggles over catchy harmonies with haunting vocals give the album a life that makes it easy to digest. The themes are universal and the muddled sound keeps it from ever having a sheen of familiarity. Very little detracts from this record. Once again teaming up with Danger Mouse, the band taps into the psychedelic grooves that make this feel like a throwback without losing its charm. At points, the album feels like Pink Floyd or T. Rex, which may not help new fans enjoy their tunes, but it does show the growth of the band quite effectively.
It is mostly an audacious move because of "El Camino," and its immediacy. It asked you to pay attention with heavy guitar-laden tracks that you likely remember from every car commercial out there. It sounded clean and almost like a sell-out album. A great one, but it left a little confusion after "Brothers" worked to make them radio friendly. This is a more polished, conceptual album to "Brothers," which feels more mature and defined. Most of all, the album manages to be a hypnotic joy most of the time and shows the mix of drums and guitar with heavy bass and synthesizers to be surprisingly effective. It wants your attention and it doesn't want to be upfront about it.
In the end, "Turn Blue" is a return to form record for the band. Even then, their hooks and collaborations with Danger Mouse prove to be a necessary adrenaline shot for mainstream radio. Along with Jack White, the blues continue to live on with purity and small tweaks that add immediacy to new audiences. Maybe the hypnotic nature will turn some people off, but you can't fault a band whose grand opening is a slow, fading mixture of sounds, begging you to shift your perception into this crazy album. It starts with its longest song and ends with its shortest, fastest track. If that isn't an ingenious form of reverse engineering, I don't know what is.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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