BlakRoc, the self-titled debut collaboration from The Black Keys, Damon Dash, and a host of hip-hop MCs, is now out in the UK, a week after its US debut the Friday after Thanksgiving. The album track "Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)," featuring Jim Jones, Mos Def, and Dan Auerbach, has now been added to the Nonesuch Radio Pop-Rock-Alternative station. This week in BlakRoc performances, The Black Keys will be joined by Jones and Mos Def on The Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday night and by RZA for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday.

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New York Times music critic Nate Chinen included the album on his Playlist this weekend. There, he wonders whether it's more surprising that the project came together at all—bringing together all those forces—"or that it works as well as it does." Chinen describes the album's sound as "hard but loose, rooted in sinewy beats by Patrick Carney, the Black Keys’ drummer, and spooky riffs by Dan Auerbach, its guitarist and singer." Read the Playlist at nytimes.com.

The Washington Post's Sara Godfrey says the album "goes a long way toward erasing the unpleasant memories of the rock/rap mash-ups of the '90s." She describes the majority of the album tracks as "inspired" and includes among its "pleasant surprises" the aforementioned tune with Jim Jones and Mos Def and the "fantastically energetic" contribution from Billy Daze on another. The review can be found at washingtonpost.com.

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Now that BlakRoc is out in the UK, reviews from the British press have started to make their way out as well. The Times, Independent, Financial Times, and Guardian all give the album four stars. The Guardian singles out its "succession of enormous, swaggering grooves"; Observer Music Monthly says, "This record does it right."

Unlike other examples of "the bling-encrusted dead-end of hip-hop," says Independent reviewer Andy Gill, "Blakroc illustrates how other rappers are refreshing the genre." Gill credits The Black Keys with setting up "slow and heavy grinds whose blues roots are still evident in the tough funk edge to the beats." He quotes one of the song's lyrics to better explain: "Fuck the white boys, The Black Keys got so much soul." Read the review at independent.co.uk.

In the four-star Financial Times review, critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney puts Blakroc at "the better end of the scale" of the rock/hip-hop collaborations that have come about over the years, seeing one track as finding its way "between the hyper-masculine posturing of Led Zeppelin and hip-hop." Read that review at ft.com.

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Back in the States, The Black Keys' home-state paper the Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the album an A. Reviewer John Soeder also looks warily at past efforts at such projects, but says not to worry here. "Happily, Blakroc clicks." He cites the Keys' "smoking grooves" and the MCs' "cool rhymes," giving listeners "a best-of-both-worlds block party." Read the review at cleveland.com.

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Consequence of Sound's Chris Coplan came at the project with similar concerns and was equally pleasantly surprised. In his four-star review, he says BlakRoc "is simply incredible."

He makes note of standouts Jim Jones and singer Nicole Wray, that latter for the "gorgeous tones" of her voice. Coplan calls her an "unbelievably dynamic musical goddess" whose "voice is so fierce and funktacular throughout the album and with a range that is incredible."

Giving a platform to such talent is one of the album's finest points, says Coplan. "Blakroc is so breathtaking because it takes two very different sets of sounds and creates something cyclical that enhances all parties involved," he writes.

Read the complete review at consequencesofsound.net.