With ZII, the band is signaling that they’ve finally returned to the heights they achieved over a decade ago. One year later, they delivered the massively underrated Transit Blues in 2016, then released the somehow even more underrated The Act in 2019. The group seemed to be righting the ship in 2015 with Space EP, a similarly committed concept EP about the dangers lurking in the sci-fi corners of space. They got heavier and darker with Dead Throne in 2011, they lost a founding member in 2012, and then released the middling 8:18 in 2013. Over the next decade, the band became a little shakier. The Walking Dead was just revving up on TV, the video game world was inundated with games like Left 4 Dead and Call Of Duty, and films like Zombieland were doing gangbusters at the box office. Aside from being a collection of six fantastic songs, in retrospect, it’s impressive how well the band was able to strike while the iron was hot. They had just released (arguably) the best album of their career one year prior, then they dropped a zombie-themed EP at the undeniable height of the early-aughts zombie zeitgeist. Delta Kream may not get a sold-out tour or million-dollar placements in commercials, but I’m glad it exists, and I know I’m not alone.īack in 2010, The Devil Wears Prada were riding high. This album is a direct contrast to 2019’s “Let’s Rock”, which feels like a collection of blues-rock songs that were bitten by a radioactive Subaru Outback. The guitar tone is muddy, the vocals are mumbled, and the songs feel like they have space to breathe. This record captures my favorite version of the band it’s the one that I first fell in love with and one that I never thought we’d see again. On Delta Kream, The Black Keys genuinely get back to their roots with 11 covers of blues greats ranging from R. That said, I don’t begrudge the band for chasing success, even if it means becoming synonymous with car commercial music in the process. Watching the band evolve from sleazy, sloppy garage rock into a poppier and poppier version of themselves has been one of the great displeasures of my music listening career. In retrospect, picturing myself as a pre-teen listening to Junior Kimbrough covers and songs like “ Grown So Ugly” is objectively hilarious but made all the sense in the world as an accompaniment to my rabid White Stripes fandom. I’ve been a fan of The Black Keys for as long as they’ve been around.
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