Album Review: The Black Keys - Peaches

The Black Keys

Peaches

*** out of *****

The Black Keys have had a roller coaster decade so far. Peaches is their fifth studio release since 2020  and their second collection of covers. Following up quickly on the heels of their disappointing 2025 release No Rain, No Flowers,  Peaches is much more connected to Delta Kream, a cover record based in the blues, but with a few more twists and turns from the Hill Country style showcased on that record. 

Album Review: The Black Keys - No Rain, No Flowers

The Black Keys

No Rain, No Flowers

** out of *****

On last years, Ohio Players, The Black Keys shifted out of their rinse and repeat blues rock style to make a successfully wide ranging effort that touched on hip hop, Beck collaborations and poppy outings all mixed in with their bread and blues butter. 

It sounded like the band was truly having fun in the studio, unfortunately things fell apart for them almost immediately after releasing the record. They were forced to cancel an upcoming arena tour and fired their management team. Without pausing, the band dove back into the studio as No Rain, No Flowers arrives just a year after all of that. One might assume it would be a retreat to their classic style, that is not the case. 

Album Review: The Velveteers - A Million Knives

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of The Velveteers - A Million Knives. Recorded by Dan Auerbach for Easy Eye Sound, the record has quite a few Black Key flourishes. 

Support the artists, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below:

Year In Review 2024 - Favorite Albums of 2024

Here are our all of our favorite albums of 2024. This is the year end review, all in one place.

Below are our picks for RtBE's favorite albums of the year. It starts with our honorable mentions then moves into our top ten albums of the year. There is a short blurb about the album and a song from it, click on the title to read our full review of the selected records. The focus here is on full albums, not singles, but long playing releases you can slap on and listen to all the way through.

We also took some time to discuss our favorite album artwork, our favorite archive/live album releases and favorite live shows from the year if you are interested.   

Thanks for reading. Until next year....

Year In Review 2024 - Favorite Albums Part 1 (Honorable Mentions & Let Downs)

Another year is finishing up and @RockBodElec wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE presents 2024's Favorite Albums Part 1 (Honorable Mentions and Let Downs):

In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album, either on this site or elsewhere, we will link to that review and just give a quick summation; click on the name/title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE also worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but long playing releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle, Spotify, AI curated playlists, or streaming for us.

These are the albums that just missed out on being included in our top ten favorite for the year (coming soon). After some very excellent albums, we have a few releases from artists we dig, which we were let down by. 

Like all of our lists or 'best of'', these are meant to start conversations, not end them...

Year In Review 2024 - Favorite Album Art

We kick off our Year in Review section of 2024 with the first feature in the Best of... wrap up: Album Art. 

Just like in years past, we will be choosing our favorite albums of the year, a few that were underwhelming, our favorite live shows, and highlight some fantastic archive releases, all of which will be posted over the next few days. 

Today we are starting out by judging books (records) by their covers (vinyl sleeves, jackets, digital pics, etc) with the Best Album Art Work of 2024.

The biggest gripe RtBE has with digital music is not the quality (that has been massively improved) nor the disposal nature of it (still a problem, but whatever), it is the lack of amazing album covers and art work.

Sure there may be great album art out there but seeing it on a screen, on Spotify or elsewhere is nothing compared to holding an LP or even a CD booklet with pages of lyrics, pictures etc. 

Thankfully the rise of vinyl is helping this dilemma but it is still not enough. The hours we spent staring, actually holding, examining tons of covers while listening to music can't be adequately recorded, it added new dimensions to the sounds. You are connected to album in a more physical way; things were deeper, more evocative...Anyways...

Here comes RtBE's Favorite Album Art of 2024. 

Album Review: Jeremie Albino - Our Time In The Sun

 Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of Jeremie Albino's new album Our Time In The Sun. Produced and half written by Dan Auerbach also released on his Easy Eye Sound. At this point the label has a pretty recognizable musical foundation thanks to Auerbach's playing and love of Southern soul. 

RtBE digs that sound, so keep it coming. A solid album. 

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below:

Happy 20th Anniversary to The Black Keys Rubber Factory

Happy 20th Anniversary to The Black Keys Rubber Factory. 

The breakthrough album from the Akron, OH duo was released 20 years ago today, and RtBE celebrate it with thoughts and tunes below.

Album Review: The Black Keys - Ohio Players

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of The Black Keys newest album titled Ohio Players. This one is a big surprise. When I am scheduled to review albums for Glide, I rarely listen to singles before the full album gets sent to me. I had no idea how prominent Beck would be on this record, it is almost a duet between him and the BK's and it succeeds.

Very poppy and different than The Black Keys last few albums (Let's Rock, Delta Kream, Dropout Boogie) and to these ears that is a good thing. Dan and Patrick can always go back to their stripped down blues/rawk, but this is a step in a new, solid direction. I have always liked them more when they expanded, especially on their career highlight, Brothers, which was one of our favorite albums of the 2010's.    

Support the band, buy the album, read the review, peep some video below:

Live Streams: The Black Keys @ Red Rocks

We are now heading into the new normal with live music during the Covid-19 era. Live shows will need to be flexible and live streaming is a great way to keep music going. Streams have become essential for live music junkies like RtBE. Things are (hopefully) improving on the pandemic front but live streams will be an option for artists during the foreseeable future. We will highlight various shows/streams/virtual events for your viewing and listening pleasure and as a way to help out the artists. You can check out our weekly Full Show Friday series for concerts from the past and as always, please support the artists any which way you can.

Today we highlight: The Black Keys @ Red Rocks

Tonight The Black Keys play one of the best venues in the country, Red Rocks. If you can't be there in person you can stream the show on nugs.net with a subscription. 

To get in the mood, here is our review of their last album and a some live video from the band. 

Album Review: The Black Keys - Dropout Boogie

The Black Keys

Dropout Boogie

***and1/2 out of *****

Back in 2019 The Black Keys returned after a prolonged burnout induced hiatus to release Let It Rock. In truth, I needed to look that review up because the last collection of originals from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney was completely fine, serviceable, and instantly forgettable. Their newest collection Dropout Boogie feels like an extension of that same formula, the duo are just putting out perfectly acceptable blues based rock and roll in their patented fashion without the stunning highs of their creative peak (2010's Brothers) or their catchy commercial breakthrough (2011's El Camino). 

This isn't a necessarily a bad thing. There are so few rock bands that can fill arenas or amphitheaters these days and The Black Keys certainly can still put asses in the seats. The opening song and first single checks every box that the Keys go for with fuzzy guitar, rock drumming, sealed up with a catchy lyric. Even bringing in co-songwriters Greg Cartwright and Angelo Petraglia can't alter the course for "Wild Child" as it is clearly classic BK's. 

Another noticeable collaborator arrives in the form of Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top to play "featured" guitar on "Good Love" and this pairing is representative of the band at this moment.  ZZ Top were a sturdy outfit who hit it big, then never really changed what got them there, and the Keys seem to be super content to follow that path. 

There are splashes of instrumentation to keep things moving forward like the wah-wah and shaking percussion on the overlong "It Ain't Over" and some Hammond organ from Ray Jacildo on the yearning soul tinged love song "How Long". The blues rock vamping on "For The Love of Money" is something this band can do in it's sleep but still revs the motor while the highlight track "Baby I'm Coming Home" completely cops the main "Midnight Rider" riff but injects some sexy swagger to the proceedings.  

Those classic rock homages/rip-offs have been with the band for a very long time, but that blues rock feel is what the band is all about. These days the buzzy rocker "Burn the Damn Thing Down" is par for the course, the group talks about destruction but the tune is nowhere as urgent as the title suggests. The Black Keys are happy to just roll along in their own well earned (and heard many times before) style on Dropout Boogie; another perfectly fine, if fairly forgettable, album.      

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Support the band, buy the album and peep some video below:

Album Review: Son House - Forever On My Mind

Son House

Forever On My Mind

**** out of *****

Son House had the career trajectory (unfortunately) of quite a few bluesman of his generation. He played and recorded in his youth, the music fell out of favor and he left the business, then was rediscovered later in life and found critical and sometimes semi-commercial fame from predominantly white audiences as a "folk-blues" singer.  

Son House had a "comeback" album of sorts in 1965 with Father of Folk Blues, the recordings on the newly released Forever On My Mind happened before that release in 1964 as House was getting his chops back. The tapes were made by his manager at the time Dick Waterman and have been waiting for the right time to be released. Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound has put this collection out now with the title track being unreleased and other standard House songs arriving in vastly different forms.

The title track opener is the first time fans get to hear this song from House and it is an intimate performance of great sounding strumming, strong singing which gets silly at times as House is clearly in his element. The humor, and corn liquor seems to be flowing as House delivers "Preacher Blues" with lines like "Gonna get me religion/Gonna join the Baptist church/Want to be a Baptist preacher/So I don't have to work". 

This rambling blues tune shows off a softer side of House who is known for the haunting "Death Letter" which is presented here in a more reserved, introspective fashion; it is as if House is feeling out what the song means during this performance and is never quite sure of the elusive track. 

"Empire State Express" finds House's strong guitar taking on train sounds as it starts to steam, but there are some vocal flubs and the track ends abruptly. That practice feel is throughout the album and while that doesn't take away from the overall effort, there are moments, such as the rough singing on "The Way Mother Did" where the artists isn't at his strongest. 

The most polished effort is "Louis McGhee" which is a slow affair of love sick blues with affecting vocals and picking. The closer "Levee Camp Moan" is a bit ragged, but these are minor squabbles as Son House is such a major figure in the blues that Forever On My Mind is a must have for blues fans and a joy to hear.        

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Support the artist, buy the album and peep some video:

New Album from Marcus King Coming in August, Single "Hard Working Man" Out Now

Marcus King has a new album recorded and ready to be released in August. 

The album, titled Young Blood, was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and the first single "Hard Working Man" is out now. It is a '70's inspired slice of booging Southern Rock.   

Listen Below:

New Black Keys Album, Dropout Boogie, Coming in May First Single "Wild Child" Released

The Black Keys are back at it. Just last year they released their Mississippi blues cover album Delta Kream and now they are prepping an album of originals titled Dropout Boogie.

The album will feature appearances from Billy F. Gibbons (ZZ Top), RtBE Favorite Greg Cartwright (Reigning Sound), and Angelo Petraglia (Kings Of Leon’s former producer and co-writer).

The album arrives in May, the first single is released already and is called "Wild Child". You can listen to it, and watch the humorous video, right now:

The Black Keys to Tour with Band of Horses and More Summer 2022

Two of the better rock acts going today will team up to tour this summer as The Black Keys hit the road with Band of Horses for a summer cross country outing. 

The groups will also have a few different openers at each tour stop. Tickets go on-sale Friday, but there is a pre-sale on Thursday at 10am, Code: CURTAIN 

Should be a fun night out when they hit your town this summer. 

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Here are tunes from both:

Album Review: Yola - Stand For Myself

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!!

It is of Yola's sophomore release, Stand For Myself.

This is a hell of a record and will certainly be on our year end list, just like her debut record was back in 2019. This one is even better though. Have mentioned it before, many, many, times, but Dan Auerbach has become a great producer. 

This record simply sounds top notch.  

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review, stream it on bandcamp or below and peep some video:

Year In Review 2019 - Favorite Albums Part 1: The Just Misses and Let Downs

Another great year is finishing up for @RockBodElec and we wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE Presents the Best of 2019 Favorite Albums Part One: The Just Misses & Let Downs:

In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album either on the site or somewhere else we will link to that review and just give a quick summation, just click on the name and title and you can read it. As always RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on the their Top 20, so expect some overlap.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but complete releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle or singles for RtBE.

Today we are going to focus on the "Just Misses" of our top ten and unfortunately the "Let Downs" released this year. Obviously these are just our personal preferences, feel free to voice your opinion in the comments. Expect second installment (#10-6) soon, but for now click on the green "Read More" below:

Top 50 Albums of the 2010's: Numbers 30-21

Way back in 2009 we were lucky enough to help contribute to Glide Magazine's list of Best Albums of the 2000's. Hard to believe it has been ten years since we worked that list, but it is that time again to look back at the previous decade and put together some arbitrary rankings. Since this site has been going strong the full decade we have a lot to pull from.

Here comes RtBE's picks for the top albums from the last decade, 2010-2019.

If we reviewed the album we will provide a link to that review in the title, a brief reflection on the record and a tune from it. A lot can change in ten years and a lot stays the same. Some albums were just right for their time and place and haven't aged particularly well and others were perhaps misunderstood or even prophetic as to where the world was headed.

Just our two cents, but this decade will not be looked back at fondly when it comes to remembering music in general. Things (for the most part) are being programmed and mushed together into mellow, white bread, digestible tunes with a hip hop foundation around pop hooks, synth vibes, a few strings and nothing the least bit exciting or offensive for the majority of music out there. In an era that should be considerably be ripe for protest, outrage, and individual expressionism, very little of actual substance has escaped to the masses.

Also from a practical standpoint, never before has the concept of "album" been so meaningless in our streaming/playlist curated society. While RtBE isn't completely old fashion, we still haven't bought into those ways of consuming music and the album is still our only way of listening to things, whether on vinyl or downloaded; no shuffling of singles here. This list focuses on full lengths that are played from beginning to end and deliver the goods.  

We will break this down over five parts, doing ten albums a day. There were a ton of good records released over the last ten years, much more than fifty, but these are our choices. We kept our personal musical releases off the list, but feel free to listen and critique those.

As a note, Glide Magazine, the main site we contribute to, changed its rating system in the middle of the decade from 5 Stars to 10 stars, then removed it all together so if you see say #49 on our list with only 4 stars, consider it doubled to 8. For Reference, here is 50-41 40-31 and all of those are also listed at the bottom of this post.

Like all of the lists RtBE have done, this is meant to start conversations, not end them. So let's kick it off...

Top 50 Albums of the 2010's: Numbers 40-31

Way back in 2009 we were lucky enough to help contribute to Glide Magazine's list of Best Albums of the 2000's. Hard to believe it has been ten years since we worked on that list, but it is that time again to look back at the previous decade and put together some arbitrary rankings. Since this site has been going strong the full decade we have a lot to pull from.

Here comes RtBE's picks for the top albums from the last decade, 2010-2019.

If we reviewed the album we will provide a link to that review in the title, a brief reflection on the record and a tune from it. A lot can change in ten years and a lot stays the same. Some albums were just right for their time and place and haven't aged particularly well and others were perhaps misunderstood or even prophetic as to where the world was headed.

Just our two cents, but this decade will not be looked back at fondly when it comes to remembering music in general. Things (for the most part) are being programmed and mushed together into mellow, white bread, digestible tunes with a hip hop foundation around pop hooks, synth vibes, a few strings and nothing the least bit exciting or offensive for the majority of music out there. In an era that should be considerably be ripe for protest, outrage, and individual expressionism, very little of actual substance has escaped to the masses.

Also from a practical standpoint, never before has the concept of "album" been so meaningless in our streaming/playlist curated society. While RtBE isn't completely old fashion, we still haven't bought into those ways of consuming music and the album is still our only way of listening to things, whether on vinyl or downloaded; no shuffling of singles here. This list focuses on full lengths that are played from beginning to end and deliver the goods.  

We will break this down over five parts, doing ten albums a day. There were a ton of good records released over the last ten years, much more than fifty, but these are our choices. We kept our personal musical releases off the list, but feel free to listen and critique those.

As a note, Glide Magazine, the main site we contribute to, changed its rating system in the middle of the decade from 5 Stars to 10 stars, then removed it all together so if you see say #49 on our list with only 4 stars, consider it doubled to 8. For Reference, here is 50-41 and those are also listed at the bottom of this post.

Like all of the lists RtBE have done, this is meant to start conversations, not end them. So let's kick it off...

Album Review: The Black Keys - Let's Rock

The Black Keys

Let's Rock

***and1/2 out of *****

It has been five years between Black Keys albums as the band acknowledged burnout has been the main reason why. Their previous record Turn Blue didn't have many markings of that feeling (containing one of their best individual songs) but it was a clear come down from their career high-points El Camino and the fantastic Brothers. The title let's you know the bands intent and it is true that the tracks are mostly straight ahead blues rock, but there is a spark missing from most which makes for a tame overall feel.

The best efforts are the first three, "Shine A Little Light" uses a sturdy riff and beat to sing about death, loss and the afterlife with a big chorus and layers of production complete with background vocal support by Leisa Hans Ashley Wilcoxson, far from the duo days of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney solely. "Eagle Birds" is the best straight ahead electric blues on the album while the pop rock hook laden "Lo/Hi" is a clear single with combo of heavy riffs and disco like dance beat.

A track like "Go" is more reminiscent of the album as a whole though. It checks all the classic rock boxes and does it's job admirably, but never truly ignites to where it could/should head to. The Nashville influence on the album can be clearly heard on "Sit Around and Miss You" complete with a country groove and more background vocals but it would would seem to fit better on a Auerbach solo album. Dan's production style is top notch these days and Let's Rock sounds alive throughout. 

"Tell Me Lies" and "Under The Gun" both play that classic rock bingo game by reminding of Fleetwood Mac and Steve Miller Band while "Get Yourself Together" goes big with an arena ready chorus. The Black Keys (and especially with Auerbach's last solo record) always wear their influences close to the surface and it is easy to pick out influences throughout this record with T-Rex, Stealers Wheels and Steely Dan all also popping up for cameos.

Closer "Fire Walk With Me" ends things on an upbeat note with hand claps and excellent drumming as the band gets it's groove back. While not on par with the groups best work, it is return to form and solid rock album, which is becoming rarer in today's musical landscape.
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Support the artist, buy the album and peep some video below: