The Black Keys
Attack & Release - Nonesuch
Filter Grade: 93%
by Patrick Strange | 05.16.2008

The Black Keys’ fifth full-length, Attack & Release, comes on the heels of over a year’s worth of conjecture and veiled concessions. In early 2007, drummer Patrick Carney confirmed rumors that he and his Black Keys blues partner, Dan Auerbach, were collaborating with R&B legend Ike Turner and master-mixer Danger Mouse. Spearheaded by Danger and to be sung by Turner, Carney talked of a record that would be released under the name “Ike Turner and The Black Keys” and would, in word and deed, return Ike to his former glory. News of the project spread like wildfire through indie-enclaves everywhere, but answers regarding details remained forever elusive.

    In a sad twist of fate, however, Ike Turner’s death in December of 2007 effectually silenced the knitting circles, while forestalling hopes for what increasingly seemed like a mythical meeting of the minds. Still, in another unexpected turn of fortune’s wheel, what would be Turner’s final record in his lifetime, Risin’ with the Blues, won him his first-ever solo Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Record of 2007. In the end, it seems that Turner was still very much capable of making hits on his own. Whether or not there are any recorded remnants of the Danger/Turner/Keys sessions is yet to be heard, but the existence of such archives hasn’t been denied, either. What’s certain is that Attack & Release has apparently dropped out of the heavens with a fistful of downright biting blues-rock. The album may not have Turner at its vocal helm, but it sure as hell sounds like it.

    Produced by Danger Mouse and taken out of Carney’s basement studio and into professional digs for the first time in Keys history, the latest record has all the cadence of honest-to-God Southern balladeers (via the band’s hometown of Akron, Ohio) and production that makes every bass kick and guitar clash a rustic-Technicolor wonder. During the first measures of Attack & Release, when Auerbach lazily croons over crispy clean acoustic strumming and doctored organs, the fear is that the Keys-Danger collabo is a grave mistake; a thing born from happenstance that’ll tragically end with a less-bluesy band and a more predictable producer. But when the opener finally explodes in all its orchestral grandeur, all fears subside. Layered tastefully with eerie background choruses and ghostly vocal murmurings, songs such as “Psychotic Girl” and “Lies” are beautifully haunting and exist as rightful purveyors of the modern blues tradition. “I Got Mine” and “Same Old Thing” are examples of the hard-hitting, sweat-slinging rock for which The Black Keys are known, but with near-perfect pitch. And forlorn numbers like “Remember When (Side A)” are reminiscent of classic deep soul with vocal stylings built upon the likes of Redding and Picket.

    The album falters only twice: once with the overtly pop, almost INXS-like hook of “Strange Times,” and the other with the choppy refrain of “Oceans & Streams.” Barring these small isolated incidents, Attack & Release is a great accomplishment for both The Black Keys and Danger Mouse, who have proven that good things can not only last, but sometimes, actually get better. The songs included here are filled with enough nuance and musicianship that it’s difficult not to think that they were in fact made for the late Ike Turner. And if they weren’t, then we’ve got something just as remarkable instead.