Review Summary: The album was indeed a Bullet to the brain.
Turn Blue is the eight studio album by the rock duo The Black Keys (Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney) , co-produced by Danger Mouse.
When it comes to the Black Keys, you may be thinking of their "Brothers" and early rock garage material, giving success and positive critics. The Black Keys have changed their sound all over the years, well, their last years mostly with more commercial material, catchy riffs, etc. but without forgetting the "Keys" touch. I’m not saying that just because their left their garage/blues/rock sound they are less relevant.. right?.
But before we move on, and before all the bad comments you may heard on this record i must say, this is not a bad album. Its different, in a sort of way.
Turn blue brings a more passive rhythm, supported with electronic and catchy sounds. The thing I like about this LP it’s the instrumentation used, I found it deep and more cerebral than other Keys works, and you can hear a lot of different sounds coming on every track, with backing vocals and good guitar riffs and solos.
The album starts with "Weight of Love" a slow “guitarish” song with few lyrics and a deep instrumentation. I think this is one of the best songs of the record, the guitar work here is good, Dan’s vocals are great and simplistic, accompanied with backing vocals, they fit so well and they make you feel the mood of the song, also it is indeed more instrumental than lyrical.
Then after the first song that I suggest it’s a strong point to the record, you are left with a series of tracks with kinda the same mantra as the first one, but in a worst way, with forgettable content and tunes. “Fever” may be one of the more memorable songs, but it is just because of its popish, simple and repetitive lyrics and sounds, not that bad but not what you may expect from the Keys. Gotta get away” suffers the same destiny as a memorable song and I agree, I like the catchy rhythm and vocals, a weak track coming from a band like the Black keys but a good ending song for an average Black Keys record.
Talking about endings, the songs I suggest are the better ones, are the last 4 including Gotta get away, the guitar work, vocals and instrumentation on these tracks are much better than the rest of the album, I recommend to give them a listen. I can say that the soul of the LP remains on these tracks including “Weight of Love”.
You know, at this point you may start feeling “what the hell happened to the Keys?” but, I can’t complain them, I understand they tried to find more sounds, more experimentation and indeed they found it, but it was applied in a bad way, a more forgettable way. My opinion? Give a chance to the record, if you like it, cool, if you dont, well, you re not missing that much, in fact, The Black keys are recognized for their older material and that’s where you should start listening.
With not much to say about this LP and with the mixed critics given, winning the bad ones that the good ones, i end this "review".
Turn blue.. by The Black Keys. Maybe not forever
