Brothers represents a significant evolution for The Black Keys. After years of raw, stripped-down garage blues recorded in basements and barns, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney decamped to Muscle Shoals and emerged with their most polished and commercially accessible record. The question is whether the polish enhances or diminishes the visceral appeal that made the band compelling in the first place. The answer, predictably, is both.
The production, largely handled by Auerbach himself with assists from Danger Mouse and Mark Neill, is excellent. The guitar tones on "Everlasting Light" — a track built on falsetto vocals and a groove that owes more to Curtis Mayfield than to Junior Kimbrough — are thick and warm, with a vintage quality that sounds authentically analogue without the lo-fi limitations of the band's earlier work. "Tighten Up" pairs a fuzzed-out riff with a handclap-driven rhythm that is irresistibly catchy, demonstrating that accessibility and quality are not mutually exclusive.
Auerbach's guitar playing has matured considerably. Where earlier Black Keys records relied on brute force — cranked amps, heavy pick attack, minimal effects — Brothers finds him exploring a wider tonal palette. The clean, reverb-laden tone on "Next Girl" evokes vintage surf rock, while the wah-drenched lead on "Ten Cent Pistol" channels Hendrix with surprising finesse. His slide work on "Sinister Kid" is greasy and expressive, sitting perfectly in the track's swampy groove.
Carney's drumming remains the band's rhythmic backbone, and his growth as a player is evident throughout. The pattern on "Too Afraid to Love You" is restrained and subtle, a far cry from the caveman thump of the early records. His fills are more musical, his dynamics more varied, and his overall approach more nuanced.
The album's length is its primary weakness. At fifteen tracks and fifty-five minutes, Brothers overstays its welcome. The middle section contains several songs that, while competent, fail to distinguish themselves from their neighbours. A tighter ten-track album would have been devastating. As it stands, Brothers is a very good record that occasionally teases greatness without quite sustaining it across its entire runtime.
