Matt Pusatory
mpusator@mscd.edu
Last year, The Black Keys released their most successful and experimental album to date, Attack and Release, with the help of the multitalented producer and mash-up guru Danger Mouse. Now The Keys’ lead singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach is getting back to his roots on his first solo album, Keep It Hid.
Auerbach pulls out all the stops and obviously relishes having free reign. The album includes vocal harmonies, bouncy organ lines, some deep bass riffs and deft drumming, even in the absence of Keys’ other member, drummer and producer Patrick Carney.
Auerbach is clearly comfortable in the contemporary blues genre, and he shows it on such tracks as “I Want Some More” and “The Prowl,” both of which are as fuzzy, greasy and lowdown as ever.
But the real gems on Keep It Hid come when Auerbach puts aside his pedal board. On the opener “Trouble Weighs a Ton,” a lonesome acoustic ballad, Auerbach enlists the help of his uncle to supply backing vocals, which give the song an almost country twang. It is a big step away from The Keys, but it manages to showcase Auerbach’s talents and prove he is not just a one-trick pony.
Whether it is dirty and loud or intimate and heartbreaking, Auerbach puts many sides of the blues, and himself, on display with his solo effort, and also affirms himself as one of the genre’s new masters.
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