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Rating: Akron, Ohio. Known mostly as the rubber capital, it surely can't be considered a fun place. According to my friend Pietro, who spent a year there, it's simply a "good place to die forgotten." Fortunately, the two guys in question (Dan and Patrick) chose to form a band and won't die forgotten, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Reaching their third effort, the Black Keys finally achieve a stylistic and compositional coherence that makes this Rubber Factory their best work so far. And one of the best rock albums of the year, in my humble opinion.
Being a duo and playing low-fidelity blues might immediately make one think of two emulators of the much-acclaimed White Stripes. In broad terms, the bands resemble each other, but the blues of the Black Keys is more visceral, and less "modern," more southern and less metropolitan than that of the Stripes. Their musical reference is not the Detroit sound, but the original blues. John Lee Hooker instead of Fred "Sonic" Smith, to be clear.
A definite strength of the combo is Dan's rich and drawling voice, a real pleasure for the ears, capable at times of lulling you, as in the splendid porch blues The Lengths, or attacking the listener, as in the brisk funk-blues 10 A.M. Automatic. The surprising thing is how their music, albeit anything but innovative, feels as fresh as a Hall's Mento Liptus, just to reiterate the fact that many can drink from the blues' fountain, but few manage to bring along some of that sacred nectar, giving new vigor to a plant often withered. Listen to believe with Just Couldn't Tie Me Down, complete with handclaps, Keep Me, or The Desperate Man, the latter with vague garage reminiscences. The fact that it was recorded in a real abandoned rubber factory only adds charm and historical coherence to an album poor in resources but full of sincere passion for music.
Forget Toe Rag Studios!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 10 A.M. Automatic (02:59)
What about the night,
Makes you change, yeah,
Oh, from sweet,
To deranged?
What about my voice,
Tells you who,
Who's been wrong to you?
Yeah,
You've got pains,
Like an addict,
I'm leavin' you,
You've got pains,
Like an addict,
10 A.M. automatic,
Alright, yeah...hey,
I see darkness cover us, alright,
And your car,
Kicks up dust,
What about my way,
Makes you doubt,
All these words from my mouth?
Here we go,
Yeah,
You've got pains,
Like an addict,
I'm leavin' you,
You've got pains,
Like an addict,
10 A.M. automatic,
Yeah, alright...hey,
Hey!
07 The Lengths (04:54)
Tell me where you're goin',
What is goin' wrong,
I felt you leavin',
Before you'd even gone,
Hold me now,
Or never, ever,
Hold me again,
No more talk,
Could take me from this,
Pain I'm in,
Pain I'm in,
See the moonlight shinin',
On your window pane,
See it leave you,
As faithful as it came,
Please yourself,
So you don't have to,
Be afraid,
Make amends,
Or carry on another way,
Another way,
Oh~oh,
Tell me what you were thinkin',
To treat somebody so,
The care he took,
The lengths to which he'd go,
The coals are hot,
To walk across,
Without your shoes,
But in the end,
Know that you've got nothing to lose,
Nothin' to lose,
Oh~oh, oh~oh.
08 Grown So Ugly (02:27)
I got up this mornin',
Put on my shoes,
Tied my shoes,
Went to the mirror,
For to comb my hair,
I made a move,
Know what to do,
Try to break and run,
Baby, this ain't me,
Baby, this ain't me,
Grown so ugly,
Grown so ugly,
Don't even know myself,
Don't even know myself,
Left Angola, 1964,
Walkin' down the street,
Knock upon my baby's door,
My baby come out,
And ask me who I am,
I say "Honey,
Honey, don't you know your man?"
She said "My man been gone,
Since 1942,
And I tell you, Mr. Ugly,
He didn't look like you!"
13 Till I Get My Way (02:31)
love me, don't leave me
make me feel you need me
you kill me and thrill me
don't you know I will be
callin on you everyday
till I get my way
darling I wonder
how you pulled me under
please remember
the cold, cold nights in december
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