Turn Blue
12 May 2014
Nonesuch
3 stars out of 5
Turn Blue is the
eighth LP by The Black Keys, and their fourth with Danger Mouse co-writing and co-producing.
If you liked the band’s work before, Turn
Blue doesn’t provide you with any reasons not to continue liking it. It’s
got the same psychedelic garage blues vibe of their older material, only slightly
sadder, slightly more cynical. If you weren’t a fan before, why start now,
really? Have you honestly thought this through?
The Black Keys are good at what they do, but what they do
isn’t terribly exciting in and of itself. Blues rock as a genre has been dead
for several decades now; if you’re going to play this stuff, you best bring the
swagger, bring the personality, and bring the noise. To Turn Blue Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have brought almost no
noise, very minimal personality, and an appalling deficit of swagger. And can
we really take these guys seriously after the lazy disco of “10 Lovers”? Again,
I ask you to reconsider your contemplation of possible fanship.
This is the second dud to be released this year that Danger
Mouse has co-written, the first being After
the Disco by Broken Bells. He’s given us one offensively inoffensive record
after the other, causing one to wonder if it’s his edge that has been lost and
not that of his collaborators. Whatever the case, step back, please disperse,
nothing of interest to see here.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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