The Black Keys: El Camino

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Over the past decade, this Akron-based duo has “turned their basement blues project into one of America’s mightiest bands,” said Will Hermes in Rolling Stone. Guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney saw their previous release, Brothers, win three Grammys and become one of 2010’s best-selling albums. El Camino finds them teaming up again with über-producer Danger Mouse, who helps augment the band’s “dark-hearted fuzz blasts with sleekly sexy choruses and ’70s-glam flair.” The band has also trimmed out any excesses and slow songs, delivering just 38 minutes of “thumping up-tempo rockers,” said Sam Richards in New Musical Express. Given “such basic, well-worn materials, none of it is going to sound particularly original,” but that’s of little consequence with music so “thrusting and urgent.” The Black Keys are now “the biggest garage rock band in the world,” and they’ve met the attendant expectations head-on.

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