BLACK KEYS
Thickfreakness (Fat Possum)
Reviewed by Alan Wright

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A move from Bomp! to Fat Possum for this two-man blues-skronk combo that's been gaining some major press of late. Singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach has one of the "blackest" blues voices I've ever heard in a white guy, and he does the somewhat flaccid modern blues genre a favor by injecting it with some much-needed vitamins. Drummer Patrick Carney holds down the beat as they stomp, shake and get down with 11 amazingly cool tunes of woe, despair and hurtin'. I liked the combo's first Bomp! release a lot, but this one's even bluesier, with lots of tasty, distorted and fuzzed-out guitar that is the closest I've heard someone come to replicating Hubert Sumlin's amazing fretwork on all those early Howlin' Wolf sides from then Sun years. Recorded in the patented "medium fidelity" sound, it's not so lo-fi as to be pretentious, and not slick and lifeless, either. Songs like "Midnight In Her Eyes," "Hurt Like Mine," "No Trust" and a really cool, slowed down and funky take on Richard Berry's "Have Love Will Travel" are highlights.

© 2003 - Alan Wright