Black Keys Strike Mellow Gold on “Ohio Players”

For their 12th album, the Black Keys have turned back the clock with a project they first conceived nearly 20 years ago. In the early 2000s, when Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were first starting out in Akron, Ohio, they toured as an opener for Beck. They hit it off so well that the fledgling garage-rock duo and the alt-rock veteran decided to make an album together at some point. In a sense, excellent news Ohio players is the long-term fruit of that idea. It's Keys' most collaborative album yet, which says something about a band that has worked with everyone from classic rock stars to rappers to Delta-blues dignitaries.

Beck appears on half the album's tracks, alongside friends and peers such as Noel Gallagher, indie-rap innovator Dan “the Automator” Nakamura and superstar pop producer Greg Kurstin (who was Beck's keyboard player on that tour the season). Opener 'This Is Nowhere' strikes a perfect middle ground between the deep Rust Belt bouquet of the Keys and the laid-back boom-bap Beck perfected on the 1996 classic, Odelay.

They keep the '90s vibes coming on the Beck-penned masterpiece “Beautiful People (Stay High),” with its euphoric Happy Mondays/Primal Scream mash-up, as well as “Paper Crown,” which features a lead vocal by Beck and a guest rap verse from Memphis hip-hop legend Juicy J of Three Six Mafia that harks back to the utopian peak of the alt-rock/hip-hop crossover. Otherwise, “On the Game,” featuring a guitar solo and backing vocals from Gallagher, is an epic blast of British pop sanctity.

The Keys say they wanted to recreate the feel of their “hangouts,” the parties they've held in cities around the world where they play classic 45s. Whether they put their throwback retro-rock machine on Memphis in the 60s, the Midwest in the 70s, or Manchester, England and Los Angeles in the 90s, it all flows together like a beautifully paced DJ set. This is not to say that the album simply creates a default atmosphere. this is arguably the most intense collection of songs the Keys have come up with. “Don't Let Me Go” locks into a slinky chug, then soars to pseudo-soul heaven. Gallagher is seen again throwing down the Waterloo sunset guitar on the lead single “Only Love Matters”. If you're looking for a classic blues revival with the Keys, there's the hard-hitting “Please Me Til I'm Satisfied” and they offer top-shelf digs with a sweet cover of the 1968 William Bell/Booker T. Jones soul standard “I Forgot To Be The Lover” you.”

In many ways, Ohio players imagines what the Keys might have sounded like had they been born into the eclectic media of the late '90s ruled by Beck rather than the minimalist rock-is-back of the early 2000s. It was a time when every genre—indie rock, hip-hop, trip-hop, rave and exotica – melting into gold. That era is not as mythical as the Mississippi Delta or a murky seventies arena. But it's a little closer to the lived experience of Auerbach and Carney and it continues Ohio Players, it's at home in every groove.