Black Keys - Turn Blue [Blues Rock]

Release date 12^th May 2014

The blues duo from Ohio are back with a new full length album, Turn Blue, and it seems it’s business as usual in the Black Keys camp; ever since producer Brian “Dangermouse” Burton joined the team, the band have pushed towards a more polished, soulful and radio friendly sound.

I've been a fan pretty much since day one, but for those who have had their fingers stuck in their ears for the past decade: the Black Keys are an American blues rock duo from Ohio. Formed in 2001, the undeniably talented and highly prolific Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) teamed up with drummer Patrick Carney to self-produce their low-fi bluesy debut The Big Come Up in 2002. Recorded in Carney’s basement using whatever equipment they could find, the album featured vintage sounding original material, covers of classic blues songs, and their own gripping version of The Beatles’ She Said. The group stuck by their low-fi recording approach until 2008, when Dangermouse produced their psychedelic tinged 5^th album, Attack and Release.

It’s now 2014 and Turn Blue is the eighth studio album from the duo.  Dan Auerbach wears his heart on his sleeve here with most of the songs touching upon his on-going divorce from Stephanie Gonis. It pains me to say, that despite the heartfelt subject matter, I have once again been left cold by Dangermouse’s production.

I hate to use the hipster cliché, but I much preferred the group’s earlier material. Since Dangermouse took over the production, the band has turned from raw, energetic, and gutsy blues, to a pale imitation of themselves.

I honestly don’t have many good things to say about this album, I suppose the optical illusion style album art is kind of cool.

Waiting on Words for example, is dreary, predictable radio rock that offers uninspired production and far too much faux-psychedelia. The same goes for the subsequent 10 Lovers, with a chorus melody so redundant you’ll swear you've heard this song before. In terms of radio-playability it’s perfect, and that’s just the problem for a band that caused such a stir for being a fresh and raw return to blues rock; it’s too damn obvious. The penultimate track, In Our Prime starts with the cheapest sounding electric piano I've heard on a commercially successful album; I've never formally studied music production, but I'm sure I could do a better job on that piano timbre with half an hour on garage-band and some black coffee.

The opener, Weight of Love is great song though I must admit. The organic sounding acoustic guitar, the resonating keyboards, the swelling and stuttering psychedelic lead guitar, the moody organs, and the warm bass make for a wonderful rainy afternoon soundtrack.  While the lyrics are simple, they capture the feelings of heartbreak and frustration just fine, and the chorus is driving and memorable. The song ends with a rare, self-indulgent extended solo from Auerbach that left me with goose bumps. Overall I wish this track had more raw “oomph!” and less superfluous instrumentation, but I can't fault Auerbach's performance here.

The second track In Time, has a big band sound highly reminiscent of Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson. While there’s lots of interesting piano motifs and guitar leads twirling around an urgent bass line and drum beat; I’m still not keen on the production, or the guitar tone, or Auerbach constantly singing a rather weak falsetto.  It’s still an interesting and memorable track, and upon first listen my hopes were high for the rest of the album.

But the title track Turn Blue, comes in at track number 3 and begins the record’s downward spiral from blues rock to beige rock. The song’s structure and lyrics are fine, not stunning but fine, and there’s this artificial wind sound all the way through to try and add some sort of psychedelic edge to the track and it does nothing; the first time I heard it I thought I was picking up interference from my phone. It’s not just unnecessary; it’s downright annoying, so much so that the last time I got to this track I just skipped it.

The fourth track, Fever is the lead single here. All I'm going to say on this track is this: Fever has one of the most predictable melodies I've ever heard from the Black Keys, and the synthesiser, which leads the melody on here, sounds like it was made by Fisher Price.

The fifth track, Year In Review is just another bland track full of excessive instrumentation which adds nothing to an already middle of the road song. The same goes for Bullet in the Brain. The same goes for It’s Up to You Now.

You get the idea.

But it’s the closing track on here which is the biggest offender; the band finally throws away the tacky production nonsense to provide something a bit more down-to-earth in terms of production, and they use this decision to present us with... a sickeningly tacky piece of southern rock.

Right I've calmed down a bit now.

I know a lot of people already do, and soon will, love this record. So please do not take this review at face value and ignore it entirely; give it a decent listen. For me though, this was just another in a long line of disappointments from a band I used to love. If you’re new to the Black Keys and you like this LP, I strongly suggest you work through their back catalogue.

[3/10]