From the twanging riffs and thumping percussion that open the album on the single, “Wild Child”, we know we’re in for a head-bopping, foot-stomping, groovy record. Dropout Boogie is The Black Keys’ eleventh studio album (!) and a conscious return to stripped down hard-nosed bluesy rock ‘n’ roll they first earned a passionate fanbase and later numerous accolades. For the first time in their studio album discography, the Akron, Ohio duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney solicited collaborations from other artists and the result is a river flow of laid back jaunts, comfortable grooves, and a few raw first take recordings. All hail the majesty and imperfections of the blues-rock guitar!
Dan Auerbach launches into “Wild Child” with the lines ‘I’m just a stranger / With a twisted smile and I’m wondering’ and then later ‘You are a sweet dream / With a tender heart and a beautiful smile.’ Bemused explorations of love, dreams and aspirations are central to Dropout Boogie, inspired by the life and musings of school dropouts (which both members of the duo are), but also Captain Beefheart’s 1967 song of the same name.
In the second released single, “It Ain’t Over”, Auerbach sings ‘Money and love ain’t no sure thing / You live for a thrill, you die for a dream.’ It’s a cautionary tale but also a celebration of life, from its echo-booming chorus to the lyrical emotions it wears out on its sleeve. Speaking of emotions, at the halfway point we get the standout track “How Long”, which is as close to a traditional rock ballad as you’ll get from The Black Keys (dare I say, there’s even the essence of latter day Red Hot Chilli Peppers. No?)
The latter half of the album is less catchy, but more groovy, ending with the crunchy jam “Didn’t I Love You”, which is also the longest song on the album and a first take recording, but still only 4:02. Dropout Boogie is efficient rock ‘n’ roll, partly due to Carney’s wife, pop-rock musician Michelle Branch, who he claims in an interview with Billboard.com encouraged trimming a few songs out. At ten tracks, it’s their shortest record to date, and concludes just as comfortably as it began. Dropout Boogie is being released on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of their first album, The Big Come Up. In attributing their music’s longevity to their geniality as a duo, Auerbach says “we’ve never really had to work at it. Whenever we’d get together, we’d just make music, you know? We didn’t know what we were going to do, but we’d just do it and it would sound cool. It’s the natural chemistry Pat and I have.”
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Dropout Boogie will be released on Friday, May 13th.
