Brothers

AlbumMay 18 / 201015 songs, 55m 36s99%
Blues Rock
Popular Highly Rated

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney\'s muscular, blues-based indie riffs broke through to the rock mainstream with *Brothers*. Recorded at Alabama\'s legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio during a period of intra-band tension related to Auerbach\'s nascent solo career and Carney\'s fractious divorce, the duo\'s sixth album puts that angst directly into the songs. The combination of Southern rock grooves and biting lyrics is most potent on the grinding single \"Howlin\' for You\" and the bass-heavy throb of \"Next Girl.”

7.7 / 10

After working with Danger Mouse on their last full-length, Black Keys sound re-energized and playful on their loosest record in years.

B

The Black Keys’ sixth album, Brothers, gets off to such a weird start that it’s remarkable the record rallies as strongly as it does. The grubby disco beat and trembling falsetto of opener “Everlasting Light” is so off-model that it almost seems designed to scare longtime fans away, and the song that follows, “Next…

7 / 10

6.5 / 10

Music shines, lyrics whine

Check out our album review of Artist's Brothers on Rolling Stone.com.

Retreating from the hazy Danger Mouse-fueled pot dream of Attack & Release, the Black Keys headed down to the legendary Muscle Shoals, recording their third album on their own and dubbing it Brothers.

The Black Keys have undertaken an epic journey and 'Brothers' is its most compelling stopgap yet...Not that long ago, The Black Keys were seen as little more than a one-dimensional curio, a budget version of The White Stripes raised on the meths-marinated evil spirits of Mississippi blues howler Junior Kimbrough and co. as opposed to the Detroit duo’s garage-rock roots.

6 / 10

When did Dan Auerbach get all snake-hipped and lothario-like?

The album is as ferocious and soulful an exploration of contemporary blues as anything in recent memory.

7 / 10

Over the last decade, the Black Keys have quietly revealed themselves to be an incredibly consistent workhorse band.

Album No 6 from the Black Keys shows plenty of life, but leans too heavily on howling bar-room blues riffing, finds <strong>Will Dean</strong>

70 %

Album Reviews: The Black Keys - Brothers

82 %

4.0 / 5

The Black Keys - Brothers review: A new chapter for one of rock's most consistent bands

Brothers V2/Co-Op ****

8 / 10