Magic Potion [Digipak]

Performer: The Black Keys
Engineer: The Black Keys
Producer: The Black Keys
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: The Black Keys: Dan Auerbach (vocals, guitar); Patrick Carney (drums). Recording information: The Audio Eagle, Akron, OH. For their farewell to the Fat Possum label, Black Keys released the six-track EP CHULAHOMA, a tribute to the late Mississippi hill-country bluesman Junior Kimbrough. While previous Keys albums made clear the Akron, Ohio, guitar-drums duo's genuine devotion to the blues, none seemed to come from the soul quite like the brief tribute to their mentor. 2006's MAGIC POTION, however, speaks from a similar place. While the Keys still happily evoke vintage sounds from the FM dial at nearly every turn, they've scaled things back a bit in favor of a leaner and meaner attack that places the focus squarely on Dan Auerbach's fiercely ringing guitar lines, Patrick Carney's solidly funky breaks, and the interplay between the two, which is capable of ghostly nuance one minute and sledgehammer power the next (see "The Flame"). As a vocalist and guitar player, Auerbach is very much a student of the late Kimbrough, hanging on to vocal and guitar lines to squeeze as much heartache and soul from them as possible. And while one can't expect the Keys to come within knocking distance of Kimbrough's front door (no matter how many times they may have literally been inside his house), they've made a record that, like the factories of their home town, burns rubber. Akron's the Black Keys have jumped labels again with Magic Potion. Beginning on their own Alive label, the band established itself internationally with Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory. They appear now with their Nonesuch debut -- they share a label with everyone from Pat Metheny and Sam Phillips to Toumani Diabat� and Stephin Merritt. Fans needn't worry that the Black Keys being on a label distributed by Warner has done anything to their sound. Magic Potion is gritty, raw, immediate and sludgy. It was recorded at the band's studios in Akron, and the only real difference is that they've become even better at what they do. Here are 11 tunes rooted in blues and riff-heavy rock, with only guitar and drums ripping through them like a loose power cable in a thunderstorm. Check out the wildly rockist riff that is at the heart of the album's opener "Just Got to Be," or the wily shambolic blues in "Your Touch." If anything, Magic Potion reminds the listener of the late great Red Devils King King except they have a deeper country, south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-line feel to them, even on a ballad such as "You're the One," which feels like it's barely being held together by Dan Auerbach's voice, which unifies the guitar and Patrick Carney's drums. "Strange Desire" is an electric-acid-blues moan disguised as a ballad, whereas "Just a Little Heat" inverts the riff from Led Zeppelin's "Little Loving Maid " to offer a wide-open howl of distorted guitar and a slippery snare and cymbals crash. For those who feel that the blues have nothing to offer in the 21st century -- especially electric blues, which has spawned countless cookie-cutter, slick deceptions disguised as the real thing -- Magic Potion should satisfy deeply. Here is a future blues that comes right from the groin of history, reinterpreted through garage rock, alcohol, and rage: just check out "Modern Times." In the slow drawling burn, one can hear Junior Kimbrough's ghost possessing Auerbach. "Elevator" closes the set on a feedback-drenched, minimal Delta blues that has more to do with the cagey antics of Charley Patton and Lightnin' Hopkins -- and R.L. Burnside, too -- than with either the White Stripes or Ronnie Earl. This is vulgar music, completely unsentimental or nostalgic but with a deep, wild, and tenacious heart; it's spooky, un-caged, and frighteningly descriptive of our time and place. It's been a long time since the majors put out a record this savage. This is the door to the blues in 2006; hold on to your hips because they will begin to twitch. ~ Thom Jurek

Rolling Stone (p.84) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "The sound may be retro, but pure blues rock of this caliber is really timeless." Spin (p.94) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "There's some heavy-hearted wailing, a dance number for AC/DC fans, and at least one track that jazzbos might identify as harmolodic." Entertainment Weekly (p.72) - "MAGIC POTION finds singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach's vocals and riffs shadowing each other to exquisitely rough-hewn effect." -- Grade: A- Uncut (p.99) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The Black Keys have always blended a certain pose with their virile stew of raucous, bass-free blues." Magnet (p.87) - "MAGIC POTION hears the duo transitioning from blues to blues-based, taking cues from Zeppelin and Hendrix as much as Kimbrough and his Mississippi hill-country brethren." Mojo (Publisher) (p.96) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "With a ferocious riff assault recalling both Hendrix and Led Zeppelin....[They] tread a similar sonic path to Jack and Meg White."

While America was never in danger of a shortage of Caucasian blues rock bands in the wake of a `90s mini-revival, few Delta-inspired acts harbored as much sorrow and fire within its songs as the Akron, Ohio, duo the Black Keys. Singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney hooked up in the mid-1990s and initially gained a cult following as a straight-up gin-soaked blues act. As their notoriety grew, elements of indie and garage crept in. As the pair released one critically doted upon album after another in the `00s, their sound proved eclectic and ever-evolving as the array of labels to which the act was signed (Fat Possum, Epitaph, Alive, etc.).

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