The Black Keys
True Blue

Daniel Auerbach and Patrick Carney certainly need no introduction. The American duo has climbed the charts with tracks that have become true hits, and their latest success "El Camino" has remained etched in the minds and hearts of many fans and print critics. Three years after El Camino, The Black Keys release their eighth studio album: "Turn Blue", which immediately stood out for dividing their dense following in half.

The boys from Akron were at a crossroads: continue on the path dictated by their previous successes or change course!? The answer is evident right from the opening track: Weight of Love is the track you'd never expect at the start of an album, a ballad that has the dust of the desert, languid acoustic guitar, followed by psychedelic electric riffs. A track placed there to say: "you weren't expecting that, were you!?". This change of pace is not necessarily a bad thing (at least for the writer here), because Turn Blue immediately appears as a mature album, to be listened to and savored more with headphones than on the radio, indeed more intimate and distant from the glitz of hits, except (not by chance) perhaps only for the spot-on single Fever. It continues with In Time, the second track, which confirms the initial feelings, only slightly changing course. It has a decent chorus, but in this case, the track struggles to leave a mark. A different story for the following Turn Blue, which also gives the album its name. Classy piece, simple but only in appearance.

Then comes the single Fever, which as already mentioned is the classic track designed and built to be chart-topping, in full Black Keys style, with organ background, choirs, direct, no frills, and with a chorus that rocks. Year in Review moves along the lines of the first tracks, but in this case, the song sounds rather anonymous and lacks something to make it take off.

A different story, however, for Bullet In The Brain, a sensual ballad, which starts slow and opens to the chorus. Distorted guitars and a splendid bass line, perhaps the most successful track of the album! It's Up to You Now instead provokes more than a few yawns while Waiting On Words stands out for Auerbach's falsetto, and a captivating guitar riff, even though it is the following 10 Lovers that truly captivates: great bass line, hints of piano, synth, and a perfectly catchy chorus. A gem.

The following In Our Prime treads more properly blues territory, with a nice distortion solo at the end, until the closure, marked by Gotta Get Away, which serves somewhat as a bridge to the past. The track you would have expected right at the beginning is positioned right there at the end, cheerful and sly enough, shedding light on a tracklist with decidedly more solemn tones. Like a shrimp walking backward, the Black Keys remind everyone who they are, but only after confusing and partially demolishing what they have achieved so far, as only a band fully aware of its identity can do.