Keys ditch riffs, opt for melodies

What separates a good two-piece blues-based garage rock band from a bad one? With so little to work with, the differences tend to be much too subtle to describe in words. That said, the Black Keys are a good one.

“Brothers,” however, contains different ingredients from your typical Black Keys album. While still drawing upon a heavy blues-rock influence and singing lyrics about awesome things with a southern howl (from Ohio, I know), most of the early Zeppelin-inspired riffs are gone. Many of the songs are aimed instead at achieving a certain sonic texture.

Take “Everlasting Light” for example, with its hypnotic bass-heavy beat and falsetto vocals. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill Black Keys song. Then, there’s the multitude of spooky minor-key tunes like “Ten Cent Pistol” and “The Go Getter” that are just asking to be played over the opening credits of a Tarantino film.

There are certainly some solid songs on the album — and the good songs here are very good. Those seven or eight make it definitely worth the buy.