The Black Keys – Magic Potion
By Chris Carney
Having long been a man who considers himself comfortable with his sexuality I have no problems declaring, loud and proud, for all the world to hear, that I have a huge Man Crush on the Black Keys.
It is a warm assembly of related feelings; pride of discovery, feral excitement from deep within my nethers and maybe a wee bit of jealousy. Then there is the shared surname. Patrick Carney is a beast on the drums, dredging up memories of Keith Moon’s raucous skin beatings, but I find myself pining for a familial connection that does not exist in the real world. Add in the precision guttural howls of Dan Auerbach’s vocals and guitars and you’ll be left doubting that they truly are just two dudes from Akron. Surely so much music cannot come from two guys.
See them live and you’ll realize there is no subterfuge at work. Carney smacks his drums in a near perfect real world imitation of Animal from the Muppets while Auerbach’s guitar centered cavorting causes arm hair chills that spike adrenaline and emotion.
So it was with an embarrassing sense of childlike glee that I tore open their latest album Magic Potion and popped it into the office stereomatic discotron player. Now some may fear their joining up with Warner based Nonesuch records as the inevitable band sellout. Fear not, the edge, the distortion and the near constant danger of redlining your equipment is still there. That is not to say that Magic Potion is not an evolution. Dreading the pigeon hole effect, The Black Keys mix a bit more rock into the melodic blues of previous albums. The lead track “Just Got to Be” beats off the forehead, while “Just a Little Heat” has Auerbach dredging up his inner Muddy Waters with lines like “Why can’t trouble find a new friend?”
All in all, the big label leap seems to have done the boys from Akron well. Magic Potion is simultaneously crisp and fuzzy, hard and melodic and is a well spent $10.
Published in IO Magazine September 2006
