Brothers

This is an an album by The Black Keys. The rating for the album is 3 stars.

Don't get it twisted I actually quite like The Black Keys, but this album is basically Blues for people who are afraid of black people. It's far too bloated and repetitive. I'd throw it on in the background but let's be honest it's music for a FIFA soundtrack. El Camino is a much more interesting and record so go listen to that instead. But even then... do The Black Keys really belong on this list at all?

When does consistency become tedium? When does authenticity become dogmatism? When does a signature become an irritant? Can an album soar if it raises these questions in the listener? Is it a bad sign that I'm asking myself these questions? The Black Keys are Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, a duo from glamorous Akron, Ohio, a city famous for Devo and its oatmeal. Usually lumped in with the garage rock revival of the 2000s, the Black Keys most resemble a non-quasi-incestuous White Stripes, basing their sound on the electric blues of Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf. Which leads to the most straightforward question: why not just listen to Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf? Do the Black Keys surpass the legendary electric bluesmen, or at least put some air between themselves and the legendary electric bluesmen? Of course they don't. That doesn't make the album bad, but as an ambition it's both lofty and meagre, that of emulating great artists because you have little faith in your own creative spleen. So yeah, record rollection rock. And, frustratingly, the Black Keys have a great song. More exactly and frustratingly, they have exactly one great song that they repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and (I'll stop now). Always the same fuzz guitar, the same overamplified vocals, the same bitter love lyrics. These are the ingredients for one great song, not all 15 on an album. And I should point out what everyone knows: that one great song is Lonely Boy, which isn't on this album. I occasionally wonder what bands would have worked better as one-hit wonders, usually choosing Green Day with Basket Case. The Black Keys have usurped them as my go-to answer to that question. Of course this album is enjoyable in the moment, but it leaves you feeling so hollow, so unsatiated. It smacks heavily of that persistent American tendency where acts falsely assume that strict obedience towards a genre's tropes demonstrates loyalty and not a deficient imagination. Why just impersonate Hank Williams, Bo Diddley, the Ramones, Tupac or Britney? Their records haven't gone out of print. An inessential album, in the most fundamental sense of that word. Still, 3 stars because it sounds alright.

I decided to renew my effort, and listened to most of it. I felt like half the songs were meant to be played with James Bond holding an assault rifle over his shoulder as he walks towards the camera and an explosion goes off behind him in slow motion. This is music for car commercials and ordering a Micheloeb Lite at the bar before going over to challenge the hot girl at a game of pool. The other half were fillers.

INTRODUCING THE ALL NEW FORD MUSTANG [Camera shows car on a highway with almost no traffic] ZERO PERCENT FINANCING [Camera shows timelapse of the Milky Way galaxy] (A song from this album is playing in the background the entire time) Some songs sounded like Imagine Dragons which instantly activated my fight-or-flight response.

Could've gone without hearing this before meeting my maker

I can’t get past the falseness of this: attitudes, ideas and styles borrowed but not understood. It’s grating, repetitive, and empty. An idiot’s idea of what a modern blues record would sound like. They really kind of exposed themselves with that cover of “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It’s so utterly inessential, so offensively soulless, it’s an absolute train wreck. They made it so easy to compare them to the real thing though. You just switch over to Jerry Butler’s version to hear what the song would sound like if it meant anything. Then you could listen to Eddie Floyd’s cover to see how an artist could actually reinterpret it without ruining it—that is if they had any inkling of how to feel music. That was my breaking point. I only had one song left but I couldn’t bear to listen to any more. Goodbye forever Black Keys.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Black Keys. They have some killer singles but I just don't know that they have a single album that holds together as a "great" piece of work. It all ends up being kind of derivative and overlong in the end. I feel like sometime this list mistakes "you must listen to this ALBUM before you die" with "Hey this was popular during 20xx, or had a couple hits on it" with importance. Overall, yeah it's got some pretty good stuff, but would I tell someone they HAVE TO HEAR THIS IMPORTANT PIECE OF WORK? absolutely not. Its a specific genre and vibe, and The Black Keys do it well, but I think others have done it better.

One of my favorite albums, by one of my favorite bands. It's not as rough and raw as Thickfreakness, nor is it as polished and dreamy as Turn Blue. This album is perfectly in the middle, and perfectly situated the Black Keys as one of the best rock bands in a generation.

Brothers sees Black Keys evolve and are aided superbly again by the exceptional Danger Mouse, Brothers sees The Black Keys toddle away from their mother blues into slightly different territory. The music is thinker with the use of more instrumentation and more layered sound. Stand-out tracks Everlasting Light and You're The Only One see Auerbach employing a great falsetto to his repertoire. Howlin For You sees wonderful glam drumming with only the obligatory "Hey" at the end of each bar missing. Though still heavily soaked in delta blues, this album is heavy on glam-rock licks and rhythm and is a pure joy to listen to. Its easy to criticise a band for trying to evolve and Black Keys succeed and pull it off, much to the chagrin of their obstructionist die hard fan base but so be it, they won't be missed. There's plenty on this album for those who feel Black Keys don't need to stray too far from their formula with I'm Not The One and Too Afraid To Love You both waving the Delta flag. I was a huge fan of the Black Keys before Brothers feeling that Attack And Release could not be topped (this after feeling the same about Rubber Factory). What's also great is that the US vinyl version of this record on nonesuch comes with a full cd promo of the album just like Attack And Release did. MP3 codes are good, but this is the real thing - add to this a massive fold out lyrics poster and the package is very good value. I can't recommend this version enough.

How do you say shite in spanish me no hablo

No didn't like that. It's exactly the sort of unimaginative indie/garage rock that winds me up...

The formula here seems to be to distill blues rock down to it's most basic elements, drown the individual instruments in a thick film of sonic distortion and scuzz, and then remove any actual blues feel. Maybe that last part is accidental, I don't know. This music puzzles me. There are no real melodies, the tunes are mostly one chord wonders with riffs so prehistoric that Led Zep or Black Sabbath would have turned down their noses at them, and there are no real solos to speak of. Okay, on Black Mud, guitarist Dan Aurebach just unleashed a solo and it turns out that he can barely play. His bending skills are non-existent and he probably couldn't play a diatonic blues scale from the top of the frets to the bottom without losing the thread multiple times. Okay, I don't get it. What's the appeal? This is blues rock filed down to the nub, with no blues feel, played without discernable skill. It's blues rock for people who hate blues rock, a real head scratcher.

I enjoyed this a lot, but I couldn't shake the feeling it was just a bit to engineered.

And i thought AM was as arctic monkeys at a karaoke as you could get 😃 astonishingly bland Interesting things that happened while listening to this album: getting chased down by a dog for being a skater which was a pleasant reprise for my soul

Great album, very consistent all throughout, no noticable duds. I absolutely love The Black Keys' style. Immediatelly added this one to my collection. Saying all that I'm not 100% sure about my rating, it gets 5 stars as I imagine I'll only like it more with more listenings.

Really enjoyed it. Didn't know I liked the black keys

When other bands were moving to synthpop, The Black Keys and Cage the Elephant made the way for a second wave of garage revival just as bluesy and rambunctious as The Strokes and The White Stripes. It's my favorite of their albums with the fewest duds and a consistent cool simple sound to rock to. First half consists of their hits, with the second half demonstrating their versatility. The production sounds great, and it's amazing how Auerbach is doing pretty much everything but the drums, and yet it sounds seamless. I know "Everlasting Light" is a fan favorite, but it's always bothered me how it's nearly identical to one of my favorite T Rex songs "Mambo Sun" (which was also the opener to their breakthrough album). You can tell they were huge T Rex songs, with many other glam rock tracks like "The Only One" sounding like they're straight out of Electric Warrior. I think the alternating arpeggios of "Unknown Brother" also remind me of some T Rex songs. Favorites: Tighten Up, Too Afraid to Love You, Ten Cent Pistol, I'm Not the One, Unknown Brother, Never Gonna Give You Up

Have never listened to these. Or The Black Crowes. Or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I have listened to Black Sabbath. Anyway, yeah, this was alright! Kind of forgettable first listen though. But enjoyable enough. Tighten Up sounds like a million other things that were out around then and can't say I like that sound. Fake old, with modern production just fucks me off. Ahaha, the next song is that Glitter Stomp one that was the Heardle the other day I didn't get because I guessed Gary Glitter over and over because that's what it was. The longer this album goes on I can tell I'm not going to take it seriously because it's not my thing. Next song sounds like late 90s Lenny Kravitz. I think I'm out, there's nothing interesting for me here, kinda average 6music fodder, fine but that's it.

Yeah so this type of pretentious indie rock shit is what I would've maybe been into in high school, but now that I'm older I think this music is so so boring and overdone. Besides maybe a riff here and there that's kind of catchy/interesting, the vast majority of this album felt like a waste of my time.

Who knew blues rock could get even more boring.

One of my all time favorite albums. Love the songs and the dynamics of the vocals. The guitar and drum sounds are quintessential bad ass Black Keys. The sleeper on this album is how well they incorporate the keys.

Great with depicting things they may have not experienced through the eyes of someone else and possibly all the feelings that come with those experiences. Listened to half the album in the shower and it seemed as though no matter how much soap I had lathered on me I could not wash away the grime and leather smell that was waving through my ear canal.

One of those bands whose every song is at least a three-star to my ears and each one is rather unique. Definitely enough 5-stars in here for me to rate the entire thing a 5.

The is really a fabulous album. The gritty blues rock is so well done... every song seems to find a groove and warrants a repeat listen. Having a hard time deciding between a 4 and a 5, but I think it shines well enough for the 5. Awesome.

The Black Keys to me feel like Imagine Dragons with more indie rocker cred. But like more offensive because Imagine Dragons doesn't carry the pretense of presenting themselves as a good band. This was somehow both inoffensive and genuinely painful, I felt like I was listening to an hour worth of primetime TV spots. The soundtrack to the death of mainstream guitar music.

I know these guys and I know I don’t like these guys. Doin a lot of stuff I dislike here so I say I dislike this

new rock and roll terrible track three has whistling terrible what is this noah and the whale horrible frankly also "killed a guy in the first degree"? you nerds dont think about killing people? horrible. ah i see now from the lyrics to 'im not the one' you guys are actually solid w o w x ai uses arctic monkeys production to make the most boring cliched soulless drag ever this record made me feel hungry and tired (but then this happens a lot)

Ugh, this is a great album! The blues, the backing tracks, the lyrics and vocals. Fantastic!

Still love this album. This time around gave me the opportunity to listen to it in its entirety from start to finish at least 5 times. So wonderful.

Wanted to give this album a 4.5/5, but I’ll give it a 5 because it kicks ass

A+ album!

Everything I want out of a garage rock album. Just solid crunchy guitar, bluesy licks, and ridiculously catchy hooks. This is the kind of album I'd have a CD of in the care and just vibe to every time I'm driving.

love the sound, interesting yet consistent rock style

This album was super mainstream but I low key love it, maybe one song I’d skip on the whole thing.

One of my favourite albums

I gotta say, that was pretty awesome. One of the best albums i've heard from this century, hands down.

Enjoyed the album a lot, I had heard a few black keys singles but I wasn’t very familiar with them.

i love this album so much and i'm not even a dude who went through breakup

Great album. Love every track.

Listened to this album while riding a bike through town. Perfect album for such a day!

Good but so bloated it's unreal

Eh

Ok, nothing I would save

Sounds like something that would play as background music in grey's anatomy when two characters who obviously want each other make intense eye contact and then start making out (ofc). I mean this in a neutral way. I liked it :)

No. 99/1001 Everlasting Light 4/5 Next Girl 3/5 Tighten Up 4/5 Howlin' for You 3/5 She's Long Gone 3/5 Black Mud 3/5 The Only One 3/5 Top Afraid To Love You 3/5 Ten Cent Pistol 3/5 Sinister Kid 3/5 The Go Getter 3/5 I'm Not The One 4/5 Unknown Brother 3/5 Never Gonna Give You Up 4/5 These Days 4/4 Average: 3,33 No bad song on here, but also only a few things that really stood out for me.

A front loaded album. Distored vocals and bluesy grooves. You'll know all the singles and that's probably all you really need to know. The White Stripes are much, much better. There. I said what everyone was thinking. Best Tracks: Everlasting Light; Tighten' Up; Howlin' For You

Tämä levy ei juurikaan herättänyt tunteita. Pakko kyllä tunnustaa, että tämä meni aikalailla taustamusiikkina kokkaillessa, mutta eipä tästä olisi varmaan hirveästi mieleen jäänyt muutenkaan. Ehkä menisi jossain loungessa taustamusiikkina?

Faux rock.

74 / 1069 Never listened to this all the way through as I assumed it’d be a boring run through, I was right. Don’t bother, Tighten Up is worth a listen though if you have somehow not heard it.

Tylsähköä perusrokkia. Ei jäänyt oikein erityisempää mitään mieleen.

True masterpiece

Loved it

J’adore cette albumm, je connaissais deja mais ca faisait du bien en 2010 d’avoir un bon son rock fuzze a la radio. El camino qui suit a continuer la tendance et cetst pourquoi cette albummse merite un 5

One of my favorite bands, still trying to catch them live. The first half of this album was hit after hit

I have heard a number of songs from this album but never listened to the whole album start to finish. I like how the Black Keys draw on classic rock and blues styles but bring something new to the table.

Bleak, sketchy sounds few & far between from earlier albums. All great

Beh vabbè questo è una bomba non c'è neanche da discutere

Fantastic. Playing within blues with overlays of almost a reggae feel but not enough to be obnoxious. “Howling’ for You” is wonderful example of that. I downloaded this album halfway through and listened to it twice in a row. Solid piece of work.

Tighten Up" Released: April 23, 2010 "Howlin' for You" Released: January 25, 2011 "Next Girl" Released:

Great album that we already have on CD and Vinyl. I'll rock it post haste

It isn't just that this music is bluesy. It's that most of their songs have a really hook that is unique and keeps you wanting to listen to the song repeatedly. The only thing that grates on me is the distortion value of the vocals on EVERY song.

A classy. In the collection

Hard not to like a good tough blues disc with hard rock elements. Doesn’t resonate with me as much as Rubber Factory, but we are talking about from levels of greatness. The Black Keys have a deep appreciation for classic rock and the blues and bring those elements forward in a manner that essentially creates a new genre.

Classis album from them, on of their best

If T Rex and Hendrix had ever collaborated, it would have produced this album. This album got me through a really dark place. Pardon my biased love.

Fantastisch wat deze 2 met enkel een drum en gitaar kunnen doen! Fenomenaal album, en de droge hoes maakt het alleen maar beter

I already know I'm gonna dig this. It's The Black Keys, ffs. Let's go. (Listening to Tighten Up) Deliciously funky, filthy blues tunes? Fuckin' sign me up, man. (Listening to Black Mud) I wasn't expecting a blues guitar instrumental and I'm here for it. (Listening to Too Afraid To Love You) Dan's voice is so visceral. (Listening to Sinister Kid) Goddamn this one's funky. This is heist music. (Listening to Unknown Brother) Am I crying during a sick-ass guitar solo? Yes. Yes I am. God this song hurts. (Listening to These Days) It was a good idea to listen to this before bed. Especially when an album closes out with such a chill track. I knew I'd like this album. I was right.

Great album. Love the classic garage band vibes. Very raw and rustic, but full sound.

Don’t wanna like it this much but it’s just great

Don’t like live recordings

One I own and want on vinyl. Love it

Tight from top to bottom

Solid.

Great album, lots of powerful guitars, bold drums and distinctive vocals. Howling for you is by far the best track but generally, a great, powerful album

Agradable, fácil de escuchar, rock sin pretensiones, un Discazo

takes me back like 8 years

These guys were/are just an incredible band. I've kind of written them off over the past 10 years or so but listening to this earlier stuff always makes me so happy. Crazy that it took 6 albums before they had a real mainstream breakout. They ground it out as a small time act for a long time. Now I have to go back and listen to the previous 5 albums

j'adore

One of the Best albums of the 2010s and a big album for me. I remember being super excited about this initially. Two young white guys making blues music in 2010? Incredible (maybe would have found this less so if I had more context of what else was out there). It sounds modern and classic at the same time. Next Girl and She's Long Gone are both searing, These Days and Everlasting Light are beautifully wilting, and Never Gonna Give You Up is a fantastic cover. Tighten Up is actually one of my least favorite songs on the record but I wonder if it was just because it was so overplayed. This is the Black Keys' best album and will almost certainly remain so as time passes. I'm upset it's not on the RS list so glad to see it here.

10/10 would recommend again

Loved it, feel like a badass

I hadn't listened to this in over a decade so thank you for the reminder. I can't fault it. It's so good.

Excellent all the way through. Bluesy and soulful rock and roll with a very distinctive sound

Groovin'

Love this album. This is the one that first drew me to the Black Keys. Good one to start with

Love the Keys

This album just really strikes a mood for me on so many occasions.

Excelent album.

Oh this was always gonna be a 5/5 for me. Banger after banger, I love this one and Tighten Up stills hits like a truck

Solid songs. The mix of blues and supersaturated fuzz distortion is unique and innovative, it's chilling and energetic at the same time. The consistency of the entire album is surprising.

Iconic

Starting to become a big fan of the black keys. Another great album from them. So much great songs on here. Favourite songs: - Everlasting light - Tighten up - Howlin’ for you - Never gonna give you up

Very nice sound!

Amazing

Great

This, aside from being the most creative and layered, both musically and instrumentally, album from the Black Keys, it holds a special place in my heart. I discovered this in a truly rough time, maybe the roughest I have ever experienced... and I got through, while this was on everyday. Great powerful and emotionally on point songs. An utter and absolute classic of indie music.

I like how this album brings the bass fuzz on Next Girl and is very comfortable in it's sonic atmosphere. Howlin For You is an excellent showcase of the power of this sound. I like Too Afraid To Love You, though it leans in heavy on a 60s nostalgia vibe. I love the story about the band getting plastered and asking their manager for a harpsichord. recorded at Muscle Shoals. I go back and forth on whether this is a 4 or a 5. I will be generous this morning.

It's a solid album front to back, not surprised, but pleased with the content.

Really good stuff. Modern blues-rock.