Dan Auerbach
Keep It Hid

"There's some really dark stuff and some psychedelic rumba. It's all that stuff I grew up with: all those bluegrass harmonies. I experimented a little with the instruments" Dan Auerbach to Billboard Magazine.

Orphaned by Patrick Carney, Dan leaves The Black Keys behind for a moment of intense introspection... of course, six years and eight albums cannot (and should not) be erased in an instant, so "The Prowl" is branded with the logo of the black keys deep in its twisted blues soul... with the crooked and rowdy drums it's hard to believe they're not played by that tall guy Pat. But from Dan's words to Billboard, it's clear we are in front of something extremely new for the guitarist from Akron, Ohio.

With the opener "Trouble Weighs A Ton" we encounter a delicate folk ballad, typical of the vast spaces of the central states, that sounds like the new single from Will Oldham, in one of his endless transformations. It's disorienting to hear Auerbach’s voice and acoustic guitar, clean, singing about his deepest emotions, just as it is incredible to hear him sing about homecoming entirely immersed in a languid country from a saloon, in the final "Goin' Home".
In between, beyond the aforementioned "The Prowl", there are a series of skewed and freaky compositions in their blending of blues, rock 'n' roll, bluegrass, southern folk, rockabilly, and early psychedelia, with the skilled hands of a genre alchemist who like a modern Dr. Frankenstein attempts to bring to life monstrously slimy and abrasive creatures... the slowed psychotropic psychobilly of "Heartbroken, In Disrepair" is Captain Beefheart playing with the Love 666, "Real Desire" is the Summer of Love left to rot in the desert sun and the title track is the delta blues overloaded with ultra-low fidelity.

He fires some blanks, like the limp southern-rock "My Last Mistake," the worst Eagles covering the worst ZZ Top (but perhaps the title is the best possible explanation or maybe just a divertissement) or the slightly stylistic and workmanlike noise-blues of "Street Walkin'", small breaks willingly and benevolently conceded if it then resumes with the languid melancholy of "When The Night Comes," delicate folk in its pacing and dark in atmosphere or with "Mean Monsoon," to which the definition of psychedelic rumba suits perfectly; "When I Left The Room" is a noir "alcoholized by cigarettes" that swings desperately within the excellence triangle of Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Mark Lenagan, while Dan Auerbach reaches the point of no return with "Whispered Words," where he composes timeless music over a moving text written by his father Charlie, aided by a small orchestra advancing coyly, stumbling into the melody, with a voice that always seems on the verge of breaking into a cathartic cry and that, instead, gives ample space to the instruments in the soft chaotic finale.

The absence of the steamroller Patrick Carney will certainly be felt by The Black Keys' aficionados, but "Keep It Hid" is a magnificent work, forcefully vying for the best album of 2009... and it's only March.