We all have at least one of those bands. The bands which we listen to and enjoy, and yet if we were to enter a bar filled with their most devoted fans, we’d be charged out of the room before we can even get our asses on the stool. All because we like that album. That one album. The album they never should have made; the album which is pretty much unanimously frowned upon by all of their followers.
I can name three off the top of my head. Daft Punk (Human After All is an awesome creation with a unique and interesting sound), Radiohead (The King of Limbs is their most thought provoking and atmospheric output to date, don’t @ me), and, of course, there’s the The Black Keys. For me, Turn Blue is their greatest album. It’s smooth, dreamy, psychedelic, and just the kind of departure from garage rock that they needed in order to stay relevant and interesting. The majority of their fans don’t agree with this. According to them, that album was a dirty blip in an otherwise unblemished discography. Something to be shoved in the corner and allowed to gather dust. And it seems The Black Keys were listening.
Five years on, and the band have apologetically returned to their roots. Almost as if the experimental Turn Blue didn’t exist, they have retorted back to their tried and tested rock n’ roll formula, crafting songs solely through the use of the electric guitar and a few heavy drum beats. This isn’t immediately a bad thing. The album actually starts with an abundance of newfound energy. “Shine A Little Light” is sharp, gutsy, and led with a guitar solo that would make Hendrix himself a little jel. The lead single “Lo/Hi” is also a ridiculously fun bouncer of a track (which it kind of had to be, seeing as it had the balls to borrow the groove from Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”). But sadly this energy doesn’t continue. Onwards from there, “Let’s Rock” seems to degenerate into “Let’s Mildly Tap Our Feet”, as the fun and headbanging opening eases into something far slower, far more soft, and far more boring.
The fans may disagree. And that’s cool. In fact, a lot of them might just be thankful their favorite group have opened up the garage doors again, even if the sounds inside aren’t quite as grungy or interesting as they were in their prime. But for me, the refusal to develop on the Turn Blue sound is a huge cause for disappointment. To put it one way, this is like The Beatles going back to the Rubber Soul era after making Sgt. Pepper. I mean, Turn Blue is no Sgt. Pepper, but it was still an upgrade to the bands original sound. It was an experiment, a concoction, a venture into something new and something daring. But now they’re back where they were before. The music is familiar, and when music is familiar, it means that music is safe. So long as The Black Keys keep their rock safe, it’s safe to say I’ll keep listening to the record they actually took a gamble on instead.