Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010

The Black Keys, Brothers

When so many artists are cramming as many musical genres as they can into one album, spawning hybrid genres like dance-rap, garage-rock and electro-pop, it's refreshing to find an album that goes in the opposite direction. The Black Keys' Brothers is a classic, unmuddled rock-'n'-roll record by a traditional-rock band. It's purposely loose and messy, just the way it should be. Songs like "Tighten Up" and "The Only One" are so bluesy and immediate, you can almost smell the stale beer and cigarette smoke.