Expensive-looking haircuts. MTV Awards. Skinny jeans. These are the kinds of elements that seep into a band following a breakthrough album, and that’s what longtime fans have seen occur with The Black Keys ever since the blues-rock duo’s sixth (and best) record, 2010's “Brothers,” found its way to mainstream ears, production-heavy music videos and 1,032 TV commercial placements. We’ve all know what happens to grass-roots-grown acts next. They try way too hard to be U2. They make music that avoids where their talents lie (and what drew fans to them in the first place). A majority of the band dates/marries Victoria's Secret models. Cue the inevitable onstage meltdowns and rehab.
If the band is lucky, they spend the rest of their career playing package tours each summer in the sheds. And if it takes a turn for the worse? The musicians end up rooming with Sly Stone in that white van of his and/or appearing as commentators on VH1’s “I Love The (insert decade).”
Which brings us to The Black Keys’ new single, “Lonely Boy,” released digitally Oct. 26 and from the forthcoming LP “El Camino,” due Dec. 6. The track begins with rising-cobra guitar and “96 Tears” organ spires. Singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach’s rich bellow remains in fine form, and drummer Patrick Carney pushes the meter noticeably faster than The Key’s normal mid-tempo wheelhouse.
The Keys probably credit this gearshift to “listening to more punk rock” or something like that, but I bet this song will sound awesome on decidedly non-punk dance floors. The chorus has a disco/soul feel. And the junkyard-lighting wah-guitar throughout the verses is pretty sexy.
“Lonely Boy” is the sound of The Black Keys continuing to ascend on their own terms. The boys may have outrun those breakthrough hellhounds. For now.
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