With their eleventh album, The Black Keys are once again self-producing, continuing the return-to-roots period they ushered in with 2019’s Let’s Rock absent former co-producer and unofficial third member Danger Mouse, who helmed some of their most popular material between 2008 and 2014. That said, the presence here of additional musicians fleshing out the duo’s lineup marks Dropout Boogie as a bit of a departure from some of their previous records; perhaps bolstered by the guest musicians who aided with the aforementioned blues covers album Delta Kream, extra sets of hands are employed throughout, providing added percussive and tonal depth to the songs.
The extra flavour is apparent off the top, with lead single Wild Child; even ten years ago this may have become a ragged, raw boogie rocker, but here it’s vamped up with layered guitars and added percussion. The fuller sound suits the song, though, and the album largely avoids becoming overstuffed; there are more players present, to be sure, but none of the instruments are buried too deep in the mix. It Ain’t Over, for example, benefits from the extra shimmer in its groove and soulful synth on its chorus. Even when the legendary Billy F. Gibbons shows up on Good Love alongside a classic Hammond organ, it’s never gaudy sounding or too far out of league with what The Black Keys do.
Still, a good number of songs here sound like either diminished versions of songs they’ve done better in the past and/or outright copies of past hits; none of these are more noticeable than penultimate track Baby I’m Coming Home, which somehow offers no songwriting credit to Gregg Allman and Robert Kim Payne despite the song’s main riff being cribbed directly from Midnight Rider. There’s also Burn the Damn Thing Down which, in addition to wearing its T. Rex influence on its well-worn sleeve, is for all intents and purposes an inferior sonic little brother to Eagle Birds, a Black Keys single from only three years ago. Granted, there’s been decades of discussion about blues rock and how derivative the entire genre is and just how much was taken from the original bluesmen of the early-to-mid 20th century, and The Black Keys have never claimed to be doing something different from anybody else (hell, even upon their inception they were unwittingly riding The White Stripes’ coattails). Still, even in terms of a career that owes much of its sonic DNA to others, Dropout Boogie is The Black Keys’ most derivative album yet.
All told, how grievous a sin a mostly unoriginal, occasionally mediocre Black Keys record at this point in their long career is directly proportionate to your tolerance for the band and what they do; aside from featuring a somewhat more fleshed out sound, Dropout Boogie isn’t markedly different from any other album they’ve released in the last fifteen years or so. While there are hints of past glories, there’s nothing as thrilling as the high points of Brothers and El Camino, nor anything as fussed over and blown out as Turn Blue; it mostly picks up where The Black Keys left off on Let’s Rock, and if that sounds good enough for you, you won’t find anything here too disappointing.
May 13, 2022 • Easy Eye/Nonesuch
Highlights Wild Child • It Ain’t Over • Good Love
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