Album — Attack & Release by The Black Keys

 

The Black Keys play up their barebones folksy blues rock on their fifth full album (interestingly produced by Danger Mouse, of Gnarls Barkley fame). The duo from Ohio sets down 11 raw tracks, dipping into influences of soul, bluegrass, rock, funk, country and blues. The mixture provides a range of sounds never straying too much from the core of the band, working as a collection of musical grit effectively taking some old ideas and making them sound new. Check for yourself.

Quarters for the songs: Strange Times; Psychotic Girl; All You Ever Wanted; I Got Mine; So He Won’t Break; Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be.

Worth listening, if you like: Junior Kimbrough; Queens of the Stone Age; Cold War Kids; The Brian Jonestown Massacre; The Raconteurs; Led Zeppelin; Kings of Leon; North Mississippi Allstars; Jimi Hendrix; Gov’t Mule; The White Stripes; The Roots.