The Black Keys: "El Camino"

Garage rock for the people who love the garage rock sound, but not much for everyone else. 

Hey, wait a minute...

I had heard much about these guys before coming around to giving them a listen. Unfortunately, my bias was against them due to the fact that they had somehow created a music video that defeated Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing” music video in the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards (I’m still not sure how that happened… Coldplay’s video is genius). But after watching them quickly rise in popularity to staggering heights, I decided that I had to give one of their albums a review to see what all the hype was really about. After listening to this album, I have to say: they do have a pretty groovy sound. But at the same time, I do not feel that they deserve all the hype that they have received.

What style of music is this? Overall, The Black Keys have a jazzy, garage rock sound to them, very much dipping into the pool of vintage rock. They have “that classic sound” that all the public enjoys, which is definitely the right sound to have if you want to make a popular album. I can understand why they have been so critically acclaimed: everyone loves this sort of music. It’s simple, it’s gritty, and it sounds like rock should sound, according to most folks. There’s nothing wrong with that, and maybe I should look at it from the standpoint that it seems like they are trying to achieve that groovy vintage sound. They do it well, after all.

You may have noticed that I have mentioned the general public many times already in this review, and that is because I cannot help but factor in the whole popularity thing. The reason I’m doing this is because it’s alarming, yet highly predictable, that such simple music is so damn popular. My statement probably stems from the fact that, not only do I prefer music that makes one think while listening to it, but I also have concluded that the majority of people out there want the exact opposite. I have heard from many different people that their favorite music is something they can “just zone out to and not think about”. This bothers me. If you’re going to listen to music, why in the world would you want to not think about it? Now, not all simplicity is bad; and as my friend Caleb Z. pointed out to me one day, it’s better to have reasonably good rock bands get famous with their simple rock songs than to have the media flooded with the really empty crap like Lady Gaga and Kesha. But still—why would the desired effect be a sort of outside-noise-blocker instead of a whole world to dive into and enjoy?

What's a vintage sound without a vintage cafe in your
vintage photo shoot?

Maybe I’m just a different breed. Hell, I know I’m a different breed. Anyways, back to the album.

As I mentioned before, these guys do the vintage rock sound really well. It’s actually a bit refreshing, in an odd way, to hear such raw rock again. It’s been a while since a band has done this well, and I feel that The Black Keys do indeed capture the essence of what rock used to be. As a whole, the entire album has that dirty jazz rock feel to it, and it’s nice. The recording quality is very good; I can hear a lot of crispness in all of the instruments and everything is heard well. Whoever engineered the album did an excellent job of capturing the garage band sound that these guys are aiming for. I would complain about the simplicity of the songs, but I’m going to keep my big mouth shut this time and just accept it for what it is. I’m grumbling on the inside, but it is personal bias that causes me to dislike simplicity, and I feel that most other people are either not going to care or will really enjoy it.

However, there is one blatant complaint that I have that I’m sure you readers are sick of by now, and that is the fact that all of the songs sound the same. I know, I know—I probably sound like an insatiable miser when it comes to that specific issue, but it really bothers me that there isn’t any variety. There are a couple exceptions with opening riffs (in particular, the song “Little Black Submarines” has an interesting two-part structure to it), but at its core the entire album is the same song. Granted, this factor is not near as bad as it was in the Citizen Cope album I reviewed, but it’s very noticeable all the same. The argument that this repetitive sound is actually part of the vintage sound that they achieve so well is a valid one, and I really have nothing to say against it since it is a reasonable conjecture. Maybe I’m asking too much of bands when I complain about this, but when I hear it done in so many other places, I can’t help but wonder why it couldn’t happen here.

"Is he saying what I think he's saying?"
"Yeah, we may as well accept it: we're pretty much average."

I must point out something interesting in this album that I feel any band that is going for a classic rock sound should do. This, of course, is the effects on the lead vocals. They have a very nice fuzzy sound to them, and I really believe that this significantly aids in getting that classic sound. With regards to effects, I wish that they had varies the distortion effects more in this album. Yes, the effect they use throughout the album is good for what they’re doing, but I also think that a change in effect would have added some colorful variation to the album. Metaphorically speaking, it’s very much like eating a lot of one particular food at once (even more so if you were to imagine a food-eating contest). Eventually, your mouth gets tired of the same flavor; oftentimes, we add some sort of sauce or drink a beverage to alter the flavor and make it something new all over again to our taste buds. The same principle can be applied to music: the more effects that are used, the more colorful the sonic palette for our ears to experience. It makes a very noticeable difference. I was very happy to hear a talk-box effect used on the solo in the song "Money Maker"; it was a good addition to the song's layout.

 

At this point, I’m not sure what else I have to say about The Black Keys. The album does what it does well, but it also doesn’t really excite me in any way. I can foresee this kind of album becoming something that randomly pops up on “Shuffle”, and it’s enjoyable for that few minutes, but then the artist changes and I don’t mind. What I’m trying to say is that this album is somewhat forgettable. It sounds good, it's reasonably catchy, and if you love this sort of rock then you’ll be excited; but it’s also pretty bland. I want to like this more, I really do—but I just can’t get over the generic feel and repetitive nature of this album. Kudos to these guys for getting to where they are now, but I’m sorry to say that they won’t find themselves being one of my favorite bands anytime soon. The Black Keys’ “El Camino” gets a:

4 average points out of 7.