A stellar return to the group’s Blues roots.
The Black Keys have had a remarkable 20 year career, recording their first three albums in a basement studio and only becoming a household name with their 6th album Brothers which coupled with El Camino saw them propelled to stadium act and festival regulars. The groups 10th album Delta Kream sees them return to the Blues sound of early records like their debut The Big Come Up, showing that their early influences have never left. The album is fully made up of Hill Country Blues numbers that inspired the group and was remarkably recorded in just 10 hours at the back end of the groups Lets Rock tour in 2019.
One of the main features of this record is how it works wonderfully well in contrast to the groups work of the past 10 years showing Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have employed a range of styles and adapted on each album with the stomping pop-rock stadium anthems on El Camino and Brothers and the more slick psychedelic sound of Turn Blue.
The opening song ‘Crawling King Snake’ is a blues standard with versions by The Doors and John Lee Hooker that the group give a more polished edge inspired by Junior Kimbrough. This is a 6 minute track but by no means feels its length and certainly doesn’t feel improvised so precise is Auerbach’s soloing and the ease with which the group are able to bring their own edge to such a well- known song.
‘Going Down South’ is another highlight of the record bursting with energy and feeling like it could have come straight from the group’s debut. The energy and precision with which the majority of these tracks are put together is hard to fault and it shows the level of respect and admiration the two hold for the genre and upholding its legacy.
While this album might appeal more to blues purists and fans of The Black Keys earlier work it is a reminder of the pair’s musicianship and an indicator that they are capable of more than recycling ‘Lonely Boy’. While there are obvious comparisons that could be made to The Big Come Up, this is more refined and feels like a spiritual successor with a more polished less raw sound but certainly not lacking in quality.
The stripped back nature of the record and contributions from other blues musicians adds authenticity and this record makes for an intriguing outlier within their wider body of work. It is an interesting experiment that has so far won high praise and it will be interesting to see whether the return to their roots is employed further on coming records or whether we will see a return to full on stadium sized anthems we have seen over the past decade.
Words by Chris Connor