Black Keys: Attack and Release : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Last year, Gnarls Barkley's sound scientist, Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, asked the Black Keys to write songs for an album by Ike Turner. When Turner died in December, so did the project, but its ideas took root. Burton was drafted to produce the next album by the group from Akron, Ohio, and the result is the Keys' most multicolored set: A psychedelic hybrid of vintage Southern R&B, brutish British Invasion rock, and country blues that calls to mind race-blurring Seventies badasses like Jim Ford and Tony Joe White. That's great for the Keys, who are often obscured by the shadow of fellow Midwestern drums-and-guitar duo the White Stripes. Sure, minimalist stompers like "I Got Mine" and "Remember When (Side B)," all raw rock riffs and cymbal sizzles, echo early Jack 'n' Meg. But "Psychotic Girl" is something else, with its banjo opening and spook-house choir. Ditto the Memphis soul of "Lies" and "Oceans and Streams," which show vocalist Dan Auerbach as a first-rate updater of old-school tradition. Note to Amy Winehouse: Book these dudes for a collaboration.