There are some things that don’t need to be overcomplicated, and a Black Keys album is one of them. For more than twenty years, childhood friends Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have come together in settings ranging from musty midwestern cement basements to expensive Hollywood multitrack facilities to the kind of tasty custom-built space where their remarkable new album, Dropout Boogie, was recorded, and there has been one constant: When these two musicians get in a room together with no distractions besides their instruments, the songs instantly emerge.
We’re talking about going in with nothing written and leaving ten days later with a nearly finished album, as with Dropout Boogie. Recorded last year at Auerbach’s Nashville studio, Easy Eye Sound, it is the best execution yet of all of The Black Keys’ finest instincts: a ten-track testament to the enduring power of their signature brand of elemental blues rock. “It was pretty effortless.” says Auerbach. “We didn’t talk about it ahead of time. We were living in the moment, playing music, and going with our gut the whole time. That’s always been the beauty of the thing Pat and I do. It’s instant.”
