Dr. John—Mac Rebennack—whose new album, Locked Down, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, is out next week on Nonesuch Records, was featured on the BBC Radio 4's Front Row last night; you can listen to the show again online at bbc.co.uk. Today on the BBC World Service, Mac talks with the arts program The Strand about the new album; the show begins at 3:30 PM GTM, streaming online at bbc.co.uk. There's more BBC love for the Dr. as Locked Down is today's Album of the Day on BBC 6 Music, so tune in for tracks from the album to be played on the station throughout the day.

In the BBC Music review of Locked Down, David Quantick explains: "Best of all, Auerbach is interested neither in providing pastiches of Dr. John’s old sound nor weighing it down with misguided over-contemporary tricks; Locked Down is an unusual album, clearly based in the 21st century with its jagged guitars, staccato beats and stark production, but it’s also true to the spirit of the artist on its cover, being mean, lean and funky." Quantick concludes: "Always there’s the experience of almost 50 years as a recording artist in this music. The voice is still there, as is the attitude, and Auerbach has done an excellent job bringing an artist who will never be out of date into the 21st century." Read the review at bbc.co.uk/music.

Also in the UK, Locked Down is Album of the Month in the new issue of Uncut, out this week, earning a nine out of ten and landing an "Essential" on the magazine's scoring system. The three-page review includes a Q&A with Mac and a "How to buy…" guide to his catalog. The pairing of Dr. John with the album's producer, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, is "hugely successful," exclaims Uncut reviewer John Robinson. "Essentially, it's the opposite of that fallback position of the artist in their seventh or eighth decade, the 'Rick Rubin' treatment. Instead, Locked Down goes entirely the other way: this isn’t a record that seeks to embrace maturity, but instead wants to invoke the wild spirits of the artist’s misspent youth." The result: "Weird, powerful rock ‘n’ roll ... enormously funky." Read the complete review in the latest issue of Uncut, on newsstands now.

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Locked Down earns four stars as the lead review in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Dr. John revisits "the voodoo-gumbo jazz funk" of his early records, writes Rolling Stone's Will Hermes. "Full of muscled, vintage R&B grooves, fevered soloing, psychedelic arrangements and oracular mumbo jumbo, it's the wildest record Rebennack has made in many years. And it announces Auerbach's arrival alongside Danger Mouse as an A-list retro-modern studio scientist."

Hermes goes on to describe the new album as "a record made by pros steeped in vintage rock and R&B" and concludes: "All told, Locked Down is that rare thing: a retro exercise that looks forward, by an old hustler and a young player who, in the process of making a great record, probably taught each other a thing or two."

Read the review in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, on newsstands now.

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Locked Down earns another four stars from the New York Daily News. Dr. John's new album "revives some of the shadowy intrigue of his first solo recordings while combining it with enough other elements to make this one of the smokiest, funkiest, sexiest works of the legend’s career," exclaims Daily News music critic Jim Farber. "Auerbach encouraged him to sideline his trenchant piano for more abstract and shimmering organ work ... John’s Farfisa organ sounds downright otherworldly."

Read the complete review at nydailynews.com.

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Back in the UK, MOJO gives Locked Down four stars as well. The latest issue of magazine, which includes a feature article on Dr. John and the new album, reviews the album and reports: "Dr. John teams up with Dan Auerbach and the gumbo is bubbling once again ... 10 of the funkiest tracks Dr. John’s been involved in since the ‘70s. There are elements of Gris-Gris and Babylon, but this is no revival; the night-tripping grooves are tight, cosmically-inclined, and brewed with a real soulfulness. This is definitely right place, right time." Read the feature article and review in the latest issue of MOJO, available now.

Also in the UK, the Herald Scotland says Auerbach "has done Rebennack a real service in that he evidently has an appreciation of the whole span of the man's career." Herald arts editor Keith Bruce says the album "serves up slabs of sixties funk served with a brimming side dish of voodoo and psychedelic guitar, and laces faith-referencing tunes like Kingdom of Izzness and God's Sure Good with soaring gospel backing vocals." Read the review at heraldscotland.com.

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Dr. John is the subject of a feature article in the Village Voice, which looks at the new album and Dr. John's three-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), which gets under way tonight with a concert dedicated to the music of Louis Armstrong and includes the official premiere of the music of Locked Down, with Auerbach and band, next weekend.

"I be constantly tryin' to open up stuff," Dr. John tells the Voice's Brad Farberman. "Like the early, early stuff I did with [producer] Harold Battiste. I think [Locked Down] was, like, connected to those days in a weird way. Like, between Gris-Gris, Babylon, and The Sun, Moon & Herbs in a weird way. But it's also fresh because of what Dan does." Read the article at villagevoice.com.

For more on the BAM residency, Dr. John: Insides Out, go to bam.org.

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To pre-order the album Locked Down on CD (out April 3) and vinyl (out April 21, Record Store Day), head to the Nonesuch Store, where pre-orders include an exclusive print of Dr. John and Auerbach plus MP3s of the complete album available release day.