Hermanos

This Tuesday the 8th studio album by Akron, Ohio natives THE BLACK KEYS will drop, and I'll be waiting. In an era where you download the new album as opposed to picking up the hard copy at your local record store, it's refreshing to have guys making music that you just gotta go out and pick up. The album is entitled "Brothers" and sounds like it's gonna be another memorable journey through the Bluesy, Southern Rock world of THE BLACK KEYS. The 2 big singles so far have been on repeat all day, no joke. Both tracks speak to complicated relationship issues, something another artist i featured earlier in the year did with her entire album. And who doesn't love some complicated LOVE issues. Isn't that what most music is about??
"Next Girl"--- Not your typical "ex" song. THE BLACK KEYS channel a little more Hendrix then usual on this tune. The guitars are dripping wet in reverb and I swear i hear "Foxy Lady" somewhere in there at the end. Instead of moaning about the past, this song is about the next chapter in someone's "relationship" life, you know, the next girl. Sure, we're still torn up about that last reltionshit we were in, with lyrics like "Oh, a beautiful face, And a wicked way. And I'm paying for her beautiful face Everyday. All that work Over so much time If I think too hard I might lose my mind". But the Blues don't last forever, and someone's come along so, "Oh my next girl Will be nothing like my ex-girl I made mistakes back then I'll never do it again With my next girl She'll be nothing like my ex-girl It was a painful dance And I got a second chance Oh my next girl My next girl!"
"Tighten Up" ---The complicated love song. A very poppy sound the boys make on this one, very reminiscent to some Peter Bjorn and John with the whistling at the beginning. The song gets grittier though as situations complicate.
"Take my badge, but my heart remains Loving you, baby child..Tighten up on your reigns, you're running wild..Running wild, it's true." The beat breaks down, tension builds and the guitar starts to moan louder; and our statement goes a little like this, "When I was young, and moving fast, Nothing slowed me down, ooh slowed me down. Now I let the others pass I've come around, oh come around. Cause I found." -nick