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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's loud, it's dirty...it's the blues. Hurrah!, 3 Jan 2003
By A Customer
Not only have The White Stripes put out a succession of brilliant and inventive albums, but they have also inadvertently helped along the way a number of likeminded garage bands to stumble out of their basements, clutching a rickety old guitar in hand and onto the front pages of music magazines. The Soledad Brothers, The Von Bondies, The Datsuns, The Beatings, The Kills (and so on...) are now gaining both exposure and sales at a time when rock music seemed to be getting increasingly more uninspiring. This whole "movement" (and I use that word loosely) couldn't have happened soon enough.The Black Keys have so far not been included in any "ones to watch" polls for 2003, but this is probably down to a distribution issue with their label than to their talent - because rest assured, this is an awesome little record and anyone enjoying The White Stripes, or the regular offerings from the Fat Possum record label, should definitely make an effort to order this album or hunt it down. The premise is simple: a basic guitar and drums duo (hmmm, sound familiar?) who shun glossy production values for the kind of earthy, primal noise that makes the whole album sound like it was recorded in a wooden shed. On a four track…probably in the rain! Yes, primitive it may be, but as The Stripes have proved, it can also be extremely thrilling. Adopting this stripped down approach (ie, dropping the bass guitar) can often prove to be a problem, because the “bottom end” is abscent, but Dan and Patrick are both very impressive musicians and as “Busted” launches out of the speakers in all it’s RL-Burnside-lick-nicking glory you don’t even notice. Top marks especially must go to Dan for possessing one almighty gutsy, earthy voice that would a T-Model Ford fan weep with joy – he’s in a class of his own. Highlights here include the aforementioned “Busted”, the swaggering “Heavy Soul” (complete with an almighty mess of a guitar solo!), the rattling “Do The Rump” and inspired cover of “She Said, She Said”. The whole album really swaggers, stomps and most importantly rocks and rolls – with the killer, and all important, blues vibe pierced right through its heart. Yes, the rather inevitable Stripes comparisons will no doubt annoy them after a while, but these guys have easily made one fine blues album on their own merits, and it really is one of 2002’s best!
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