The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
Following the recent release of their second album, Portamento, The Drums are mid-way through a massive UK tour schedule. The Yorker caught them in Leeds.
The first lyrics of opening track and lead single, ‘Lonely Boy’, immediately introduce the feel of the record: “Well I’m so above you / and it’s plain to see.” The duo deserves the mass attention they are getting nowadays, and they know it.
El Camino is undeniably The Black Keys’ most commercial record, but where groups like Kings of Leon went big with awful results (the dire Come Around Sundown), Dan and Pat reinvigorate their blues rock with a refreshing boost of effortless soul, coming off the back of the 60s-infused Brothers, in 11 tracks each with their own catchy riffs and choruses. Tales of love, lust and broken hearts in numbers like ‘Gold on the Ceiling’, ‘Sister’, ‘Money Maker’ and ‘Hell of a Season’ are impossible to resist; their relative simplistic structure bolstered by Danger Mouse’s excellent contribution as producer, adding some deceptively complex glam-panache to the cymbal crashes, claps, fuzz boxes and organs. The noticeable break away from El Camino’s formula is ‘Little Black Submarine’, a classic-rock ballad of a broken-hearted man pleading to a phone operator to let him stay on the line. Auerbach’s vocals and acoustic guitar are reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’, not least when the solemn opening half of the song bursts into an explosive electric guitar riff, followed by Carney’s loud and fast drums – a definite album highlight.
El Camino couldn’t be a smarter move; bigger, louder, yet still distinctly Black Keys. The closing track, the filthy ‘Mind Eraser’, ends with the repeated line, “Don’t let it be over.” It’s hard not to echo this sentiment as the guitar fades away. Coming in at 38 minutes, El Camino burns bright, hard and fast, and is all the more better for it. The Black Keys are going places – jump on the bandwagon or get out the way.
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