The Big Come Up

If someone told us The Black Keys\' debut was recorded 40 years ago with a cheap tape machine on a hot night in a backwoods juke joint, we\'d probably believe it. Delta bluesman Junior Kimbrough\'s \"Do the Rump\" conjures a hypnotic groove with just one pounding snare, a wailing slide guitar, and Dan Auerbach\'s lustful and slightly distorted voice. Their \"She Said She Said\" amplifies the angst of The Beatles\' original, with double the fuzztone and a drum part even more powerful than Ringo’s.

If you're not hooked by the time Dan Auerbach finger-picks his way into the whining guitar groove of opener Busted, then the delivery of his sandpaper vocal drawl - ably assisted by Patrick Carney's whiplash drumming and "medium fidelity" production - will assure you that, in the US Midwest, they still keep their blues traditionally bottled. And therein lies the key to The Black Keys' brilliance - the ability to make exciting new tunes sound raw and well-travelled, without falling into lame pastiche or parody. – Ross Bennett / MOJO Akron has spawned the most compelling two-piece, hyper-primitive, blues-based rock band of the last five years. – Chuck Klosterman / The VILLAGE VOICE

The Black Keys' sound, impressively, is not too thin (though it is garage-ish), and there's enough deft incorporation of funk, soul, and hard rock into the harsh juke joint-ish core to avoid monotony.