In Retrospect: "The Black Keys - Brothers"

Brothers is the sixth studio album by American blues rock duo The Black Keys. The record was released on May 18, 2010, and was the band's commercial breakthrough.  

Background

By the year 2009, the band was under a lot of pressure, duo to their commercially unsuccessful fifth studio effort Attack & Release, which saw a shift in the duo's sound away from their blues roots. Both set out to do side projects and put the band on hiatus. Guitarist/Vocalist Dan Aurebach recorded his first solo album Keep It Hid, with his engineer Mark Neill in his home studio in Ohio. Drummer Patrick Carney had no idea that Auerbach had any solo plans: "Everybody knew but me. I was mad at Dan. I was mad at our manager. I was mad at everybody." Carney thought the band was going to end, leaving the duo to hardly speak to each other in months.  

In the months to come, Carney divorced his wife, whom cheated on him leaving him depressed and falling into alcoholism. The duo met up with eachother and agreed that they should focus on the band's next studio recording, and got back to work. The duo set out to record in an old studio in Alabama with engineer Mark Neill, whom worked on Aurebach's solo album. The studio was opened in 1969 and recorded with The Rolling Stones and Paul Simon, and later moved to a bigger facility. The studio was closed since 2005 and hasn't recorded any albums in 30 years.

Recording

When the band turned up at the studio, the place was nothing more than a relic with empty rooms. The group hauled all of their equipment to the studio and started recording. The recording saw some difficulties, duo to the studio itself, the nearby work on the telephone poles and the some vintage gear that was burned out when the band tried to use it. The usual rutine for the band was getting up early in the morning, eating breakfast at a local diner and go into the studio.   

Carney still had negative thoughts due to the divorce stating: "At the time it was really, really difficult for me because I had just split with my wife after a nine-year relationship and the last place I wanted to be was the middle of fucking nowhere in Alabama, sitting in a dark room." Auerbach sympathized with Carney, making him write the song Next Girl. The lyrics of the song helped Carney get out of his depressive state, making him better than ever. The band used a different aproach to writting songs, using a bass guitar and drums combo rather than the usual guitar and bass setup they regularly used. The guitars were later overdubbed with vocals and keyboards later in the process.  

The band recals their time at the studio as very inspirational and productive, recording 10 out of 15 tracks in 10 days in the studio. Neil told in an interview "Things were happening that were very, very transcendent, as soon as they began playing. First few takes, we literally couldn't believe what we were hearing. Dan and Pat were kind of looking at each other saying, 'That doesn't even sound like us.' Seriously." The rest of the songs were recorded in La Mesa, to tweak the songs and mix the album.  

Reception

The album itself, received critical acclaim across the world. With a high ranking score of 82/100 on the website Metacritic, being placed number 2 on the best albums of 2010 list by Rolling Stone magazine, featured on the Spin's Top 40 albums of 2010 and Paste Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2010. The album was also nominated 5 times at the 2011 Grammy Awards, and winning the Best Alternative Music Album of the year and the award for the Best Rock Performance with the single Tighten Up.  

In Retrospect...

I discovered this album when I was listening to some of the tunes from The White Stripes on Youtube, where I got a recommendation for an album by a band called The Black Keys. When I listened to the opening track Everlasting Light, I knew I was going to like the band and the record (I did). The songs combine the old bluesy style from the band,  with the newfound style that they have experimented with in the last record, yet this time it was more refined. Highly recommended album for all rock music lovers out there.