“Let’s Rock” had everything needed to be groundbreaking, but instead, it’s the closest the Black Keys have come to making a stereotypical Black Keys album.
When you stream or buy a copy of the Black Keys’ ninth album, you might notice that there’s quotation marks around the album title: “Let’s Rock.” It’s an intriguing stylistic choice, and it piqued my curiosity enough to look up its origin. Apparently, the state of Tennessee executed a murderer named Edmund Zagorski by electric chair all the way back in…November 2018. His final words? “Let’s rock.” The Black Keys’ singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach saw this headline, and there you have the album’s artwork and title.
In theory, this title “Let’s Rock” is a pretty badass way to introduce an album. Even without the backstory, you could imagine Auerbach saying it to drummer (and the other half of the Black Keys) Patrick Carney before kicking off a song, or vice-versa. After you listen to the album though, the quotation marks around “Let’s Rock” might feel a little insincere, like someone’s saying the title with air quotes.
“Let’s Rock” had everything needed to be a groundbreaking Black Keys album. For starters, it’s their first release in five years, their longest gap between albums yet. Second, both Auerbach and Carney kept busy during this break by producing albums for other artists, and Auerbach also formed and fronted side project the Arcs. Third, “Let’s Rock” is their first self-produced album since 2006’s Magic Potion. Danger Mouse, who recently collaborated with Parquet Courts and Karen O, had produced their last four albums, and this relationship marked a turning point for the Black Keys’ sound and popularity. With the Black Keys back together and back in full control after honing their musicianship with other acts, you might expect something really unique on “Let’s Rock.”
Instead, “Let’s Rock” is the closest the Black Keys have come to making a stereotypical Black Keys album. Its dozen tracks are all less than four minutes long, and they all have essentially the same structure. The resulting uniformity makes much of the album innocuous but unmemorable. There’s nothing like the psychedelic flair of Turn Blue, the bait-and-switch of El Camino’s “Little Black Submarines,” or even the falsetto effects of Brothers. This might sound like a welcome respite for fans of the Black Keys’ earlier work when the blues were heavier and the frills were lighter, but “Let’s Rock” doesn’t have the grit or the punch of anything like Thickfreakness or Rubber Factory. Ironically, despite Danger Mouse’s absence, it sounds just as polished as their albums with his touches.
The biggest fault with “Let’s Rock” is that you’ll probably tune out by the time the fourth track “Walk Across the Water” comes along. More than anything else, Auerbach’s vocals have a noticeable “decaffeinated” quality to them. The same singer who once belted out “I wanted love, I needed love, most of all” on Brothers single “Tighten Up” now sounds…bored. I can’t think of any other way to describe his presence on songs like “Tell Me Lies,” “Every Little Thing,” or “Breaking Down.” A few tracks like “Lo/Hi” and “Sit Around and Miss You” feature the same women who contributed backing vocals on El Camino (Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson), and their vocal heavy lifting is one of the rare garnishes on an otherwise bread-and-butter album. That said, they also kind of solidify the fact that “Let’s Rock” often sounds like a collection of El Camino outtakes.
Although the general vibe of the album leaves much to be desired, the guitar work on “Let’s Rock” really is top notch. The power chords during the chorus of opening track “Shine a Little Light” create a melody that will remind you exactly why you like the Black Keys in the first place. They’ve also managed to cram a ludicrous amount of guitar solos into the album, with particularly impressive ones on “Eagle Birds,” and “Fire Walk With Me.” The fierce hard rock riffs of “Every Little Thing” and “Breaking Down” coupled with their solos also create a good contrast against Auerbach’s deadpan delivery, while the instrumentation on “Get Yourself Together” and “Go” add some pep and swagger to the album’s latter half. Carney appropriately called the album “an homage to electric guitar” in a press release, which sells himself short a bit, but Auerbach’s shredding is the best it’s ever been on “Let’s Rock.”
Even if all of its tracks are appropriately radio-friendly and you can spend considerable time identifying its 70s influences like a classic rock sommelier, “Let’s Rock” seems to languish in the territory of being “not great, but listenable.” Even positive reviews of the album have praised its simplicity in oddly backhanded terms, like they’re describing light beer. Paste Magazine called it “something you can crank up at backyard barbecues” that lacks “experiments with song structure or eclectic instrumentation,” while the Times summed it up as “a great summer album if you don’t want originality.” For the world of guitar-based indie at large, this album coupled with the closely-released (and more memorable) Help Us Stranger by the Raconteurs do prove that indie’s garage and blues rock heavyweights still have life left in them. As a Black Keys album though, “Let’s Rock” is more of just a “we’re still here.”
Rating 6/10
You must be logged in to post a comment.