Brothers

Blues inspired rock

I'm worried about myself. These guys clearly know how to play instruments and produce an album and entertain people. But i really didn't like it. It felt calculated and cynical. Big beat sounds ramped up to the edge of nasty distortion. 2- chords songs designed instead of felt. Faux blues riffs. Shallow lyrics. Just said nothing to me. I was worried I was having issues with music but then I discovered the new School of Seven Bells album and realised this Black Keys shite is just not my cup of tea.

Found this a bit monotonous. I am not sure what the point of this band is. Formulaic, pompous US Indie Rock of a certain age.

Zero. Dislike this band.

Hate. Let me tell you how much I’ve come to hate the black keys. There are approximately 10,000 microbreweries and sports bars in the greater statistical area of northeast Ohio. If Tighten Up was played across every single nanoangstrom of those establishments, on every alt rock station, on every truck commercial, on every bumper between the coverage of Browns games, in every dingy record store in an old brick building, that would not equal one billionth of the hate I feel for this band in this microinstant. This fake blues band, this whiter white stripes wannabe, this insult to the city of Akron that somehow every other person around me thinks is good because they’re from the same area as us. I cannot begin to describe how often I’ve had to hear this band for the past fifteen years of my life. Hate. Hate.

2/10

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50 long minutes of meandering, sauceless blues rock. I cannot think of one stand out moment in the entire album. At the very least it provides unobtrusive and not wholly unenjoyable background music. Why exactly must I listen to this before I die. Favourite Track: 14 - Never Gonna Give You Up Best Three Track Run: 13, 14, 15

where to begin with this one, and not for good reason. this is one of the dullest, most REPETITIVE albums i might have ever listened to. this simply leaves you unsatisfied, you begin listening and here some decent instrumentation, but are met with the same old monotonous lyrics. a poooor poor attempt at blues rock imo. the best song if i had to choose would be never gonna give you up, but that’s actually not even there original song which i think tells you everything needed to be said about this piece

Don’t dig it. 1.

Keep being told I might like this band, can now say I've given it multiple attempts and I still don't.

I GOT THE LOV-oh wrong album. 1/5

Hate to say, but this album did nothing for me. Was probably about 5 songs too long and the blues-rock drunken whiskey bar sound got old pretty quickly. A few highlights at the end but not much else. TOP 3: Never Gonna Give You Up, These Days, Tighten Up

Not my music...isn t new

Not for me

Nothing really stands out to be about this album. I have heard some of the Black Keys things, and enjoyed them. I don't think this album is anything to write home about, though. After reading some reviews, I can agree that this is music for a car commercial. Very repetitive, and overall very... millennial? (I will give this one more star than the David Bowie mess I was forced to listen to yesterday)

It was alright - classic indie rock album. Not my kinda music but pretty up beat and chill - the lyrics didnt feel meaningful. I know maybe a couple of years ago I woulda liked it better.

The music on its face is not terribly bad or offensive, but what it represents is. Another overrated, mediocre and derivative white rock band from this century’s album that I did not need to listen to in this lifetime or any other. The White Stripes/Jack White already did this and did it with more idiosyncratic production and lyrical content.

Never cared for them.

Perhaps I'm biased but this is an early 10s faux hipster boy in song form.

👎🏻

Aburrido, horrible

So boiling generic rock, dnf

Not sure why this retro tosh is supposed to be alternative.

There's people among us who listen to this and think it's really good. Chilling.

Honestly pretty boring album. Fine as background music but couldn't finish it.

Hellllll nah

Contrived, derivative, boring. I truly hate this period in "rock" music, and I hate the Black Keys for perpetuating it.

"This is nice cup of espresso" THIS IS DECAFF, YOU BASTARDS!

Fuckin’ awful!

At what point did someone decide "white people playing blues for the indie crowd" was something that needed to exist? It's just boring and unimaginative.

Rating: 0.6 The Black Keys and their wretched Lorax soundtrack Bastille ass millennial sensibilities need to retire now. The whole thing was offensive musically, tired lyrically, and pointless conceptually. I think this species of weird gross hipster is dying out and it can’t come soon enough.

I've always thought it would make sense for The Black Keys to make raucous garage rock like their two-person band counterparts The White Stripes and Japandroids. Which makes these mid-tempo, safe songs sound pretty jarring. Even once I adjust my expectations, it's hard for me to find anything special about this. The production is clean enough to remove most of its edge outside of the vocal effects that make it feel "old." It lacks memorable riffs and impressive instrumental moments are rare. And the songs mostly stick to the same formula. Which to be fair, is also true of the blues this is emulating, but this lacks the passion, grit, and vocal emotion of blues. I'm not even a blues fan and I'd rather listen to any classic blues over this.

Okay, it has one or two mildly enjoyable songs, but overall it's so BORING, that I would let it play only in some crappy roadside pub, where I won't stay too long.

Every song sounds the same. I try and pick a track from every album and I honestly can’t remember anything about any of them. Boo!

The brand new Skoda Octavia from just £26,740, various payment plans available. Terms and conditions apply… …wait, you're telling me I haven't just spent an hour indulging myself into a barrage of car adverts that someone with a deep seated self-hatred assembled into a YouTube playlist? Does anyone seriously care about these soulless hacks? This is the definition of “live, laugh, love” blues rock for people whose greatest sense of danger and excitement in their life was mixing cider and beer on a night out once. Music for people who don't like music. Thoroughly depressing stuff.

Not a fan of Black Keys. I'll try to give it a listen. Welp, still very meh. I don't see the appeal to these guys at all.

Crap

Aalxi lagyo 🤣

There are some redeeming qualities in few songs... But still not enough to rate it 2. I've got so bored :( I Don't know why people call it garage rock or blues rock. It's so bland and the album lasts forever

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck youuuuuuuu

Not for me, and not for this list, in my opinion. I see that The National’s High Violet, also released in 2010, has since been removed from the 1001. I suggest Brothers would be a better candidate for removal.

No interest in this band or this album. Even if Richard Osman is the drummer.

1 star All filler. I was never even a fan of the singles, although “Howlin for You” isn’t bad. But this is not an impressive album and is not memorable.

This is #day306 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… It's sad to see such a high rating for this kind of music. But then, I guess people have always gravitated toward simple and accessible, right? What we have here is garage/blues a la The White Stripes and The Kills with a kind of Arctic Monkeys-circa-AM feel (I know it was released only three years later, but still). That's not the most compelling mix out there. This album/band hasn't aged well enough to be worth hearing before you die. I doubt it/they ever will. This is a 1 out of 5. Looking forward to #day307.

What a terrible album

boring and listless

Sounds like music made for beer commercials. The highlight for me was thinking track seven was going to be a cover of Dr Hook's When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman from the opening couple of bars. The low point was realising it wasn't...

I used to like this album, and the first few tracks almost tricked me into thinking it was ok… but it’s so long and I was pretty PO’d listening to this tbh. Giving it the rare 1

im sorry but this is absolute dogshit lol

kinda boring but not horrible

Just some people doing an impression of music from 50/60/70 years ago. Did we need this? I've not heard much that made me think there was any originality. Not offensive in any way, but not innovative either. Wouldn’t listen again; it sounds like people doing an impression of an older band. Cliches abound.

I was driving whilst listening to this and happened to pass a van that was on fire on the M25. I figured they were having a better time than me.

I have tried for years to enjoy Black Keys but can't. It's boring, poor drumming, and intentional lo-fi without any originality.

The most insufferable and soul-less version of blues/rock to exist. I hate it. It's like they specifically make it to license it out for car and beer commercials so that insufferable alpha male idiots buy it thinking it's cool and manly. Makes me want to rip my ears out.

When did repetitive, boring, monotonal, wanna-be rock win 3 grammys? In 2010. This album has no creativity whatsoever. It doesn't create ideas, it just riffs the same one on the same instruments for 15 fucking songs. Like what the fuck is this one of the worst albums i've ever listened to. 0 stars

Peak piss millennial hipster music. Long beard ipa drinking flannel and fake glasses wearing $25 burger selling ass bullshit music. What, you think you’re better than us because you add reverb to all of your vocals? Fuck off. Or is it the shitty tambourine stomp clap beats that have you on your high horse? Fuck off. On the Wikipedia page the lead singer refers to the drummer as “homeboy”. Fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off. Howlin for you has to be one of the worst songs of all time to get significant radio play. Hey let’s make a song that sounds like it should be playing on a sports video game menu, but with as much pretentiousness as we can fit in the 10-track recorder. I generally like the black keys overall, but man I hated this album. I can tell that I would despise all of the band members just from how the album sounds. And that’s why this gets a 1

At first I thought you guys were being overdramatic about this album, then I got into it myself. To its credit, it starts off really well & I do quite like a few of the black keys songs - Fever in particular is one I’ve always had a soft spot for. Back to this album, this thing felt like a marathon, it went on for hours! I felt like I had to stop halfway through & eat a banana, There’s like 100 songs here and they’re all the same! Everytime I hear Howlin’ for You I think it’s going to be a cover of Rock & Roll part 2 Tried to engage with this in good faith but the middle of this album had me question if I ever really liked the black keys at all. Maybe it’s just very samey & I can only listen to one of their songs at a time. Strong start, a couple near the end are good but the middle of this is just noise. Three songs added to my playlist, 5 added to the 1001 playlist. That sounds good, until you remember there’s 500 songs on this album. Who’s excited for and Imagine Dragons album in coming months?

Love to listen to this and get 0% finance on a new Hyundai hatchback. ----- That's a trite comment, but does encapsulate the feeling of the whole album. The moment I heard the slightly fuzzy vocals, I was checking which of the songs were deluxe edition only, so I could shorten the experience.

i would rather listen to 5 kings of leon albums than one black keys album this is so dreadfully 2010 and i have very little respect for the vocal distortion sound they're so in love with. it is not 1950. you are not more authentic because you've made yourself sound like you're on a record being played on the radio in 1950.

Rock muzak for people who don’t actually like rock music at all (or haven’t listened to any rock music before). About as lackluster, uninspired, and formulaic as rock can be. The guitarist’s range is extremely limited not only by the complete lack of skill or style in his playing, but also by the fact that he doesn’t know how to play any notes outside a simple pentatonic scale. I also find the singing style really cringeworthy, and the little bit of distortion they put on his vocals makes it even more irritating. The last two songs on the album (original tracklist) were probably the most interesting

This is to my ears a poorly recorded album which was a a hard listen. The poor audio quality could be excused if the actual album was up to scratch. But there was nothing at all to hold my attention. All been done before by better artists. 1/5 9/1/25

I work at a coffee shop. Yes, I am writing a screenplay, how did you know? We serve tea in proper teapots and teacups, and multiple times I have had to replace the cups with mugs because the male customers, and it is invariably men who do this, don’t want to drink out of ‘little girly cups.’ It’s a sort of masculinity that I don’t understand one bit. How does drinking from a slightly smaller receptacle make you feel like less of a man? If I sense that a couple of blokes with this hangup are going to order tea for two, I try and give them the pink spotty teapot. The Black Keys give me the same sort of sense of toxic masculinity as refusing to drink from teacups does. Brothers is Pop music wearing flannel, it’s designed to scratch your brain in the same way that McDonalds or Maroon 5 does, designed to soundtrack car commercials or pop-up ads for erectile dysfunction pills. But, because it’s informed by the same basic instincts as good Blues music, that makes it somehow OK to listen to, doesn’t make you less of a man than if you admitted to listening to one of the Pop Princesses does. I think that’s fucking stupid. I am secure enough in my masculinity to enjoy Taylor Swift and not go ballistic if I’m forced to drink out of a teacup. Brothers gets One Star, not just because I think it’s an uninspired rehashing of better and more interesting Blues acts, but because it represents a toxicity in Rock that I cannot stand. If you like Pop, listen to Pop. Don’t listen to this garbage just because you don’t want to listen to ‘girly music’

I could not give less of a single fuck about a band for dudes in their mid-30s still going to basement shows after their day job as a consultant, still drinking PBR, still smoking Marb' Reds, and still dating girls who are freshly out of liberal arts college and trying to ✨find themselves✨ while working a temp job as an Executive Assistant. I especially don’t care when that band makes 15 songs that all sound the same, despite the obvious expert-level studio tinkering going on. If you’re going to be Steely Dan for Millennials, the least you could do is write catchy fucking music, and not the sonic equivalent of unseasoned chicken breast. Like, sure, you'll get the gains, but what's the point if there's no flavor? I know there are actual bad albums on this list, but I’d be lying if I tried to pretend that this has any value. Just because The Black Keys are talented, doesn’t mean they deserve my attention. Michelle Branch's The Spirit Room is a million times more deserving of being on this list.

mid white boy blues

Not my style

Nearly all of the songs sounds the same, with those bassy riffs just plodding on and on. I get that they want to sound very big, but they sound like nothing at all. The melodies are forgettable. The lyrics are trite. "Oh, my next girl, yeah / Will be nothing like my ex girl" made me lol. There is very little about Brothers that i enjoy. Predictable and safe music. It makes me think of going to the mall. I'm sure their songs have soundtracked plenty of Apple commercials.

Every song is the same for 55 minutes. Absolutely should have stayed in 2010.

1. light - 1 2. nezt - 0 3. tighten up - 1.5 4. houuling - 1 5. long gone - 1 6. black mud - 1.5 7. the only one - 1 8. too afraid - 1 9. piztol - 1.5 10. zinizter - 1 11. go getter - 0 12. the one - 0 13. brother - 0 14. give you up - 1 15. theze dayz - 0

this is a 55 minute album made up of 15 songs that sound the same, have the same lyrics, and are all equally boring. lyrics are very dull and the album is 3x longer than it should be.

Car commercial ass music

Imagine devoting your whole career to essentially making multiple demo reels proving you are the perfect band to make the opening song to a James Bond film and yet you remain unselected. One star.

I used to like this band when I was 14 and listening to them again as an adult I am very confused as to why. May be being very harsh here but I'm also marking it down because this is by no means an album that you MUST hear before you die.

Can’t stand The Black Keys

Don't hate it, but not really my thing.

This was very dull.

hated music

certainly not something that impressed me a great deal. One or two songs appealed to me, but the rest I found bland, predictable, unimaginative, uninspired and not really original in any way. I've been a singer/musician for over fifty-five years and never easily impressed. 1/4/24.

Boring

Not one song stood out.

It's a mystery why this is on the list. Uncreative basic blues rock. Apparently it's part of some garage revival? I can put it on in the background without hurting but why shouldn't I put on some proper blues instead?

Very generic and bland, sounds like the crew 2 No songs caught my ear

This shit sucks

Had to turn it off after one song. I just can’t.

Blues ilman mustaa ukkoa.. Ei ne mustat näppäimet itseään soita..

Garbage. Stupid sloppy drums and out of tune guitar with stupid fuzz effects and limp wristed playing attempt to give this album a laid-back, casual and authentic vibe but it just doesn't work. Lyrics are cringe and all the songs sound the same. A lot of the songs are just a simple vamp.

Is this a joke? The production is the star of the record, and it gets old after a couple of songs - same boot drums, same fuzzy vocals. The album feels like someone wanted to parody a 60’s blues rock record, and left out the heart and soul. Forgettable rhythms, predictable lyrics. Pass.

Awful, utterly dreadful.

Medicos at best

I came to this from the early 1970s, and the first thing that hit me was that there isn't a part of the audio spectrum left alone by this. I pulled out a nice little audio visualiser/oscilloscope, and sure enough - it distorted and noisy to the point where its just like some muddy white noise. It's relentless and doesn't give you anywhere to go. And then Howlin' For You comes on, with its looped to hell glitter beat and I'm done. Nope. This isn't for me. Not a whole album of it.

I like el Camino but this cover is ass so not listening

I usually love guitar drums two pieces, they more often than not come up with something wild and relentlessly interesting. This is not the case with the Black Keys. I really want them to be good, I really do because theres so much potential there. But what they do isn't clever or fun or even particularly interesting and thats never been more evident than on Brothers. This is an hour or so of blues for people who don't like blues and fuzz laden riffing for people who don't like fuzz. Its the John spencer Blues Explosion for people who are afraid of wild chaotic experimentation. Its Death from Above 1979 for people who are afraid of rock music. Its the White Stripes for people who don't care about authenticity. I can forgive a mediocre album, I find it harder to forgive acts who are deliberatley middle of the road when they have so much potential. I'm going to put on the John Spencer Blues Explosion's Now I got Worry, its what I wish this was.

Nopes

Don’t think this car commercial music should be on this list

So boring

Poor man's Arctic Monkeys

ny i zalupa

Cool jazz for way back when.

skip

Solid.