I've been a fan of The Black Keys since 2003's Thickfreakness, and it's been fun watching them grow and evolve. While they've gotten further away from that Blues-influenced Garage Rock sound they started with, they've continually found ways to incorporate new and interesting elements into that style and make a fun experience out of it.
With Turn Blue, The Black Keys do just that. Teaming up with Danger Mouse again, (He produced Attack & Release and co-produced Brothers and El Camino) The Black Keys put out an album that, while steeped in a Bluesy, Garage Rock tinged atmosphere, explores the Psychedelic range for the majority of the album, and it's a welcome turn. If Brothers and El Camino are two sides of the same coin, Turn Blue is a slightly misshapen but similar coin. Okay, I'm bad at making analogies, let's just accept that right now.
I listened to the album twice through the free iTunes radio stream and immediately dug it. Today, on the day it came out, I went out and bought the vinyl and it sounds absolutely delightful, with wonderful packaging to fit the mood and theme of this album. From what the band has said, this album is less about radio singles and more about being a "headphone record" meaning it has been mixed specifically to have a unique experience in headphones over a stereo system, but I have yet to try it out. I bet it makes the experience even that more personal.
While Brothers and El Camino felt like a collection of tightly constructed numbers, Turn Blue feels looser, more air-y. Songs like title track Turn Blue have breathing room. They float along, letting the melody just wash over you. It's not always a slow pace however, as the lead single Fever is a floor-stomping disco-y number, with one of the best basslines and most memorable synth lines on the whole album. It's infectious, which is probably no coincidence due to the nature of the song lyrics. The lyrics throughout most of the album are about love and loss, which was to be expected as the divorce singer Dan Auerbach was going through happened during these sessions. It's often forlorn and depressing, but sometimes the lyrics pull up into this wistful-hopefulness and it's just the little glimmers of hope the album needed to keep from being a complete downer.
The biggest things you'll notice about the album is that it has a lot of soul to it, vocals and guitars. It really grooves along too, with some heavy basslines and real fuzzy guitars. Between the amount of reverb used on the lead vocals at times (like Bullet in the Brain) and the female vocal harmonies hanging around in the back (like on Year in Review) the album has this hazy, dream-like quality to it, but it never stays that way for long. It's just there long enough to give you an idea of what that could be like, but they never let it go too long without punctuating the song with a wonderfully catchy bass riff or reverb-upped guitar.
Turn Blue feels like a floating journey through the mind of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, with hints from Danger Mouse floating in and out. After having produced the last 3 albums and taking co-writing credits on El Camino, Danger Mouse's influence is undeniable at this point. He's a producer who loves to let the music breath, and that I think is the best asset here on Turn Blue. It never feels like the music is being forced, it just feels like this is how these songs were supposed to sound, even when we've never heard The Black Keys quite like this.
I cannot recommend Turn Blue enough. I understand that some old fans like myself who might not like the more poppy sound The Black Keys have been turning to, but if you understand all that made them what they were is still there in some way or another I think you can appreciate this album. While it's a long ways away from the raw, pure energy of Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory, this is just an outreach into a different sub-set of influences that makes for just as enjoyable album in it's own right.
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