Review Summary: Missed some blues rock? Come and get it!
Over a relatively short period of activity, the all-around wonderful band The Black Keys managed, in an easily accessible and entertaining form, to draw the attention of a wider audience to such genres as blues rock and lo-fi, as well as to demonstrate their coolness, variety, and, what’s more important, melodism. Their achievement in popularizing and reformatting the sound of backwater America is invaluable. And we should not forget their contribution to musical development and their own style.
Starting with the acclaimed
El Camino, wonderful transformations have led the band to an intriguing adventure that continues still. But occasionally there is a need to stop and glance back, thinking about the roads traveled, and possibly to re-estimate themselves and contemplate the great days passed, retrieving some old and well-worn things out of the backpack.
This ritual is what
Dropout Boogie partially is, making a slender but still noticeable combination of the early and later periods in the band’s history.
Such tracks as
For the Love of Money,
Your Team Is Looking Good,
Good Love, and
Burn the Damn Thing Down take us straight back to the Black Keys’ earlier raw sound, although they did expand on their blues roots. There is a reason why
Billy Gibbons is among those featured on
Good Love (which is immediately noticeable within the first seconds – his deep and rumbling
ZZ Top guitar lines draw all the attention).
A few examples of the hybrid approach are
Wild Child,
It Ain’t Over,
Happiness, and
Baby I’m Coming Home (which recalls
Free but is only a bit heavier), where mild blues touches mix with melodic choruses hinting at the poppier sound of their later period, which will be appreciated by those joining the band’s adventure then. Also,
Happiness is the most successful one in this selection, with a heady portion of blues layered on melodic rock.
As a result,
Dropout Boogie ended up being both lightweight and simple, although it is also somewhat unfocused and dispensable – but that is if we turn on a serious critic mode. However, there is no need to do it right now; the status of The Black Keys allows them to take a breather.
If you feel the need, just put the new album on, and you won’t even notice how time flies.
