The Black Keys Spiral Into Hypnotic New Song ‘Fever’
The Black Keys have released a slinking, hypnotic new cut “Fever,” the first official song from their upcoming eighth studio album, Turn Blue, set for release on May 13th. The track, available below, finds Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney melding their tried-and-trued garage blues with a hip-shaking, psychedelic groove.
The Black Keys also offered up a few possible, somewhat cheeky, interpretations of what Turn Blue could mean in a new press release: “Suffocation, sadness, numbness from extreme cold, a Cleveland late night TV host from the 1960s named Ghoulardi (who might have inspired the man in the teaser clips) – or all of the above.”
“We are always trying to push ourselves when we make a record—not repeat our previous work but not abandon it either,” Carney said. “On this record, we let the songs breathe and explored moods, textures and sounds. We’re excited for the world to hear Turn Blue.”
The song comes with a simple video of an animated pink and blue spiral, which also appeared as a spinning-record-as-hypnotist’s-wheel in the David Lynch-ian video that Mike Tyson – of all people – tweeted alongside the text “Turn Blue” to announce the album. The creepy man in the clip – who promises, “Spin, spin, spin, around and around we go, let yourself go – if you follow me you will turn blue” – also shows up in two much shorter, though equally weird trailers for Turn Blue.
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It’s been a little over two years since the Black Keys released their last record, El Camino, though the band told Rolling Stone back in September of 2012 that they’d started tinkering with ideas for a new album amidst a slew of tour dates. Turn Blue was recorded in earnest during the summer of 2013 and produced by Auerbach and Carney alongside Danger Mouse, who also helmed the group’s last three records. You can currently purchase “Fever,” or get it as an instant download when you pre-order the whole album over on the band’s website.
“We never know what’s going to happen,” Auerbach told Rolling Stone about the band’s recording process back in 2012. “We don’t talk about it. We don’t plan it. We start recording, and then all of a sudden it starts to take shape and we have an idea.” He added that each Black Keys record represents “a snapshot of a moment in time. We like to let them be like that Sort of a spontaneous thing.”
Turn Blue Track list
1. Weight of Love
2. In Time
3. Turn Blue
4. Fever
5. Year in Review
6. Bullet in the Brain
7. It’s Up to You Now
8. Waiting on Words
9. 10 Lovers
10. In Our Prime
11. Gotta Get Away