So I really wanted to NOT like this album – just for the whole Danger Mouse collaboration and fears that a Black Keys song could be the next Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” plague. But my fears were assuaged a few songs in. Some reviewers have said that they had hit a wall with their past few albums – but in my eyes they have steadily brought that bluesy-garage-rock sound that I have come to crave from them. This album strays a little away from that by touches of futuristic sounds, and a lot more doses of those lovers-lament songs. At times the whole low-fi, distorted sound that has been their signature on past recordings feels a little forced on this album. I almost want to record it onto a tape and pound it out of the 6-inch speakers of my 1997 JVC boombox just to get a true “quality-crap” sound.

All in all – a good album from The Black Keys, but I do hope for their next album they go back to recording in Dan’s basement.