For a two-piece band such as The Black Keys, diversity can be hard to come by.
The ability -- or at least the interest -- to change things every once in a while is what separates the good from the bland, with duos such as The Fiery Furnaces, The White Stripes and even Flight of the Conchords managing to vary their styles often enough to keep things interesting.
For a while, it looked as if The Black Keys was destined to wallow a tier below its coupled contemporaries. The Keys' combo of Pat Carney's drum-bashing with Dan Auerbach's rumbling guitar and plaintive, blues-even-on-his-birthday vocals tends to rock pretty hard, but it's formulaic and gets tedious after a while.
Attack & Release, The Black Keys' newest release, attempts to shake things up a little. There are a few throwback guitar-and-drums rockers -- "Strange Times" and "Remember When (Side B)," to name two -- but, as a whole, it's a relatively slow burner of an album. By varying tempos and moods throughout the record, though, the band succeeds in establishing a level of dynamism and unpredictability that was conspicuously absent on past releases. Even on the most mellow of tracks, though, the trademark Black Keys bite is present. The unlikely pairing with producer Danger Mouse for Attack & Release was a risky move for the garage blues duo, but his influence is blatant. The silky freshness of Danger Mouse's hip-hop/electro/ experimental production techniques does not clash with the sandpaper of the Keys' genuinely raw garage style; however, the contrasting techniques fuse perfectly.
The new record is more varied musically, as well. "Psychotic Girl," for example, features a piano, backing vocals, a banjo and a relatively unfamiliar electric guitar tone. On "Same Old Thing," there's even a clarinet. It's all very unfamiliar territory for the Keys, but somehow it doesn't feel out of place.
What haven't changed, however, are Auerbach's somber lyrics. Expanded production techniques and backing vocals diversify Auerbach's singing from song to song and keep the record fresh, but he's still singing the blues. There's not much profundity in a line such as "I got a stone where my heart should be/And nothing I do will make you love me" or "It doesn't mean a thing to me/And it's about time you see/Things ain't like they used to be," but there's an authenticity in Auerbach's raw voice that lets you know he's not only singing, he's feeling, too. He's only 28 years old, but he gets it.
The Black Keys has sacrificed its minimalist gimmick -- Attack & Release was definitely not recorded in 14 hours, like 2002's Thickfreakness -- for musical exploration, but it pays off. Attack & Release is The Black Keys' most ambitious work to date and, as such, it's also the band's most engaging.
From just about any other band, Attack & Release would barely qualify as experimentation. The Black Keys, however, executed the same basic formula for four straight albums, and it did so with relative success. No one would have batted an eyelash if the band sleepwalked through a fifth one.
But Attack & Release is a much-needed wake-up call. The Black Keys finally decided to try something new and, though it's not a complete departure from the duo's past work, it's definitely the logical next step. It feels like linear progress, not an errant left turn. It's a band making the right move at the right time and establishing itself as one of the best pairings in the music world.
Grade: B+
