There was an almost ethereal groove floating through the Black Keys’ Turn Blue, and it arrived on May 12, 2014 with a surprising punch. That groove is immediately apparent on “The Weight of Love,” a shimmering lead-off track which feels spacey and oddly romantic all at once.
The Akron-based duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney began recording music in basements and some of that defiance shows on Turn Blue, but for the most part this was a sleek album with a certain “soundscape” quality about it that showed up in the breadth of these smart arrangements.
Pulling it back to “The Weight of Love” was a good idea. The piece began with acoustic guitar and the Danger Mouse fog well in play. But then the riffing kicked in and the van kicked it to the desert, so to speak. Things became spacious and yet dryly desolate, even in light of the slickness of production. The trick was in finding the balance and the Black Keys mostly did.
In the balance is a lot of room for some terrific melody-making.
“In Time” used what could be considered an overabundance of sounds to forge ahead, but once again it’s the melody that stood out. The chorus was striking and it appeared almost by surprise, with Patrick Carney’s staggered drumming kicking a path through the verse. There was an argument to be made for Danger Mouse’s growing influence on the two Ohio lads, I guess, but the strength of the songs suggested that the arrangement between band and producer was working. As much as something like “Fever” could’ve gotten away from the Black Keys, it still belonged to them.
The same friction cut into the title track, which swirled with effects but was still grounded in the howling urgency of the blues. The melody eked through and there were dramatic sweeps of strings to be discovered, but the basis was still a simple, carving riff from Dan Auerbach that couples beautifully with his soulful singing.
The recessed, dirty riffs of “It’s Up to You Now” and the killer, springing bass line of “10 Lovers” stood as testament to the heart that still sits inside this band. No matter what arguments are made for how far they’ve come from the basement, the soul and blues are well within the Black Keys.
And that’s what made Turn Blue another great recording. It pushed outward but it didn’t forget the core within. It didn’t eschew modernity in favor of clinging to past glory and it was not afraid of embracing forward-thinking concepts. It didn’t lose in the gamble. It turned more blue in the process, and that’s really something.
- The Black Keys Pushed Forward Without Losing Their Way on ‘Turn Blue’ - May 12, 2019
- David Ian’s ‘Valentine’s Day’ Made Romance Romantic Again - February 14, 2019
- Jerry Kalaf – Welcome to Earth (2015) - February 6, 2015
