El Camino

Aside from whatever project Jack White is up to, my favorite rock act these days are The Black Keys. I have only two of their albums, but it's enough to sell me, and I'm going to have to go about filling in my collection of their back catalogue.

Their latest album is El Camino, and the eleven songs are all fine--no clinker in the bunch. Most are drawn from a garage blues-rock, and lyrically they suggest that love is misery.

The band consists of only two members--Daniel Auerbach on guitar and Patrick Carney on drums. For this album, Danger Mouse produced and co-wrote all the songs. I'm not knowledgeable enough about Danger Mouse to know what he added to the enterprise.

As I said, all of the songs are good, so picking out  favorite is tough. I think I'll go with the min-epic "Little Black Submarines," which seems to be an up-date of Jim Croce's "Operator," as the lyric suggests a man begging with a telephone operator to connect a call (how quaint). The repeated line here is "Everybody knows that a broken heart is blind."

Other songs are variations on the weak-willed man and the predatory female. "Mind Eraser" says, "Got this sin in our brain/That she ain't gonna see me again/See me again, this I know/But oh, deep down I can't let go." The single "Lonely Boy," which is nothing like the Andrew Gold of the same name (God, I hated that song--what a whiner) is instead about a guy who's willing to wait for this awesome girl. He even sings, "You pulled out my heart out and I don't mind bleeding."


In the vein of The Offspring's "No Self-Esteem" is "Run Right Back:" "She's the worst thing I've been addicted to...I run right back to her." And "Stop Stop" goes: "You're wound up like a weapon/you've got an evil streak/they told me to stay away/but I was much too weak."

The closest thing to a positive message about a woman on this album that I could find was in the very danceable "Money Maker," but it's not exactly "I am woman, hear me roar": "Oh, she wants milk and honey/ oh, she wants filthy money but oh, that's not the way it goes/I wanna buy some time but don't have a dime." So that's either about a stripper or a prostitute.


Despite what may be deemed a misogynist bent (these guys must have had some bad relationships) this record is eminently listenable. "Money Maker" and "Gold on the Ceiling" are hip-shaking, and the whole think rocks--no ballads, no acoustics. If you've had a bad breakup, put it on and realize you're better off without her, and shake your hips while you're at it.