Some albums I paid real money for and listened to in 2010
First in a series
What I like to say about The Black Keys is that I knew them way back when. I was in a comic book shop years ago when a fellow shopper and acquaintance said I should check them out.
"Dirty blues guitar," he said. I can never get enough dirty blues guitar. They're second album was at the store and I bought it. It was called Thickfreakness and it delivered an update of the great Howlin' Wolf and a revamp of a blues guy I had never heard before, Junior Kimbrough. This was I guess, 2003 or 2004.
I bought every album since. The follow up was Rubber Factory. The weakest set in their discography, actually. After that was an EP Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough, which was wonderful. Then Magic Potion and Attack and Release.
The thing about The Black Keys is that they aren't afraid to just groove. They know they can blow your mind but a lot of times they are content to do a slow burn, John Lee Hooker style and blow your mind that way.
I love that about them.
Anyway, another friend said to me last year that I needed to get Blakroc. Apparently, my beloved blues band had decided to do a hip hop record with a bunch of people I had never heard of. Oh noes. It was decent though most of it just isn't my thing. I haven't listened to rap since Will Smith was still known as the Fresh Prince. I gave it up for Nirvana and Willie Nelson and haven't looked back.
There are a couple of decent tracks on Blakroc but it's inconsistent at best which should be expected when you have 11 different rappers as collaborators.
So, the first week Brothers is out do you know who was in the store buying a copy? This guy. I probably played the whole album once a week, every week since I got it. And, you know, you think I would be sick of it or my wife would be sick of it by now. But the thing about Brothers is you won't get sick of it. You'll just keep grooving on to it.
As you may know the Black Keys are now like successful and junk. And good for them they spent a decade building something worthwhile and ultimately the audience came to them.
Which is to say that Brothers is the best album of 2010. Accept nothing less.
Key Tracks: Next Girl, Howlin' For You, Ten Cent Pistol and Sinister Kid.
