With just one more day to go before the release of Attack & Release, The Black Keys new album, the band will be live on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic today. The New York Times says of the collaboration with Danger Mouse: "Happily, the results are not just evident but potent. While the sound of this blues-rock duo has been fleshed out, none of its grit has been glossed." The Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the album an A, exclaiming: "The results are splendiferous." The Akron Beacon Journal, calls it "the band's most interesting collection of songs and sounds."
With just one more day to go before the release of Attack & Release, The Black Keys new Danger Mouse-produced album, and just hours to go before pre-orders can be downloaded from the Nonesuch Store (starting midnight ET), the band will be live in the KCRW studio in Los Angeles for Morning Becomes Eclectic beginning at 11:15 AM PT today. Fans in LA can tune in on 89.9 FM; the station also streams live from kcrw.com.
In today's New York Times, music critic Nate Chinen reviews the new album, writing of Pat and Dan's collaboration with Danger Mouse: "Happily, the results are not just evident but potent. While the sound of this blues-rock duo has been fleshed out, none of its grit has been glossed." Chinen finds that the producer "nudged the duo ever so slightly from their comfort zone," while "the meat of the album" remains Dan's "searing vocal and guitar work." To read the review, visit nytimes.com.
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Back in the band's home state of Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the new album an A, with the paper's pop music critic John Soeder calling the collaboration "not business as usual," writing:
The results are splendiferous, starting with the opening track, "All You Ever Wanted." It's perfect for a lazy afternoon on a back porch, at least until the monster organ roars to life, signaling a rethink of the minimalist Black Keys sound. Other songs tastefully incorporate everything from banjo to vintage synthesizers, without crossing the line into overkill.
Soeder says of the duo's drummer that Pat "remains a one-man wrecking crew" and of singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach:
As usual, he doesn't sound like a dude from Akron. So exactly how is a dude from Akron supposed to sound? I don't know, but he isn't supposed to sound like Auerbach, an old soul trapped in a young man's body. His fuzzy guitar riffage is first-rate, too; for proof, listen no further than the ferocious "Strange Times."
To read Soeder's review, visit cleveland.com.
And in Akron, writing in The Black Keys' hometown paper, the Akron Beacon Journal, reviewer Malcolm X Abram writes that the album's producer "doesn't dominate or attempt to force his sound (which to his credit can be difficult to define), but instead adds colors to the band's palette." Abram calls Attack & Release "the band's most interesting collection of songs and sounds, a record that works best when enjoyed in its 39-minute, 11-track entirety."
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Weighing in from the UK, gigwise.com gives the album four stars, with this poetic description of the band's sound:
A drum kit constantly ringing, a tin beehive guitar sound and vocals that is as much Bob Dylan as a Southern Baptist Preacher, Attack & Release is the god-given birth right of everyone from Robert Johnson to Jimi Hendrix ... Attack & Release is a original and dynamic album with a sonic blast that'll clear the cobwebs off your dusty stereo and get you reaching for that volume knob. If this is blues in the 21st century, then its going to be a hell of a century!
