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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
All hail the riff king! The Black Keys' guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach has the meanest way with a hook since Jimmy Page. He adds to his arsenal on the band's fourth full-length release, on which each track pounds its way into your skull with fuzzy, swampy fury. Less is very definitely more in Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney's world as the stripped-down guitar/drums attack smolders, burns, and then ignites without shifting into heavy-metal overdrive. But even with the occasional ballad such as "You're the One" slowing the momentum, this is an intoxicating blast of raw, thudding blues power. The duo impressively control the dynamics, raising and lowering the tension in a yin-yang struggle of ominous, greasy, heavy blues-rock that never sounds forced. With the exception of a few subtle but effective overdubs, this is the sound Auerbach and Carney heard in the drummer's basement studio where the music was recorded. Like the best rock and roll, the disc exudes a dark, cramped claustrophobia and foreboding sense of danger, just like wandering through a haunted house, unaware of what is behind the next corner. It's the main ingredient in the band's deceptively simple yet potent formula that creates this addictive, compelling, and often intense album. --Hal Horowitz
Product Description
Magic Potion, the Black Keys' fourth album, is a spectacularly stripped-down set of sneakily melodic blues-besotted rock concocted in the Akron, Ohio basement studio of drummer Patrick Carney. Guitarist-singer Dan Auedback is possessed of a compelling, hurt-beyond-his-years voice and an approach to lead guitar that is both wildly expressive and utterly succinct. The self-taught Carney, who anchors these tracks, may force writers to return "heavy" to the rock-critic lexicon as a seriously praiseworthy term. The Black Keys maintain a punk terseness to their adamantly do-it-yourself sound; they're as single-minded in their idiosyncratic evocation of the electric Mississippi blues as artists like the late Junior Kimbrough and R. L. Burnside as the Ramones were about early sixties rock and roll. However, there is nothing high-concept or ironically distanced about their style; it's all sweat, sincerity and as much swagger as Carney's basement allows.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It just doesn't get any simpler, or any better, than this.
"Magic Potion" features the same short list of ingredients that made The Black Keys great--only now everything's blended toghether even more perfectly. Two guys--guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Pat Carney. Timeless blues songs about the timeless things: love, lust, desire, duplicity, troubles both simple and insurmountable. Auerbach's perfect blues voice, with just the right amount of weariness and longing. Just the right amount of drumming from Carney. And swirling throughought, Auerbach's great electric guitar crunching through monster blues riffs and spreading out into long lonely arcs of electrified ache.
On paper, the Black Keys sound like something dreamed up by record company executives trying to copy The White Stripes. Two people? Check. From a Rust Belt town? Check. Playing garage-y blues? Check. A name with a color in it? Check.
It sounds like something that's been done before. And it has. And yet the music's so good and simple and timeless and catchy that you can't help but love it anyway--this is the kind of music you hear just once and say, "Wow--who is this?" so you can pick up your own copy at your earliest convenience, if not sooner. The songs are every bit as good, and perhaps even more consistent, than those on 2004's "Rubber Factory." And there's some killer lyrics here, to boot. "I don't wanna go to hell, but if I do, it'll be cause of you," Auerbach growls on "Strange Desire," and it's hard to think of a simpler, fresher, or more authentically blues-y lyric. The band's website says this album's about "getting their signature sound down to a science," and that sounds about right. It's a shame more musicians can make timeless music so effortlessly--there's plenty of bands out there with three times as many people that don't sound half as good.
"Magic Potion" features the same short list of ingredients that made The Black Keys great--only now everything's blended toghether even more perfectly. Two guys--guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Pat Carney. Timeless blues songs about the timeless things: love, lust, desire, duplicity, troubles both simple and insurmountable. Auerbach's perfect blues voice, with just the right amount of weariness and longing. Just the right amount of drumming from Carney. And swirling throughought, Auerbach's great electric guitar crunching through monster blues riffs and spreading out into long lonely arcs of electrified ache.
On paper, the Black Keys sound like something dreamed up by record company executives trying to copy The White Stripes. Two people? Check. From a Rust Belt town? Check. Playing garage-y blues? Check. A name with a color in it? Check.
It sounds like something that's been done before. And it has. And yet the music's so good and simple and timeless and catchy that you can't help but love it anyway--this is the kind of music you hear just once and say, "Wow--who is this?" so you can pick up your own copy at your earliest convenience, if not sooner. The songs are every bit as good, and perhaps even more consistent, than those on 2004's "Rubber Factory." And there's some killer lyrics here, to boot. "I don't wanna go to hell, but if I do, it'll be cause of you," Auerbach growls on "Strange Desire," and it's hard to think of a simpler, fresher, or more authentically blues-y lyric. The band's website says this album's about "getting their signature sound down to a science," and that sounds about right. It's a shame more musicians can make timeless music so effortlessly--there's plenty of bands out there with three times as many people that don't sound half as good.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Black Keys are one of my favorite rock and roll bands with their garage band minimalism tempered by touches of blues and psychedelia. But I was a little surprised when the band signed to the eclectic Nonesuch label and wondered how this would affect their sound. Well, I needn't wonder at all as this album was literally recorded in a band member's basement and keeps the same raw and exciting sound as the bands previous work. Most of the songs are kept short and sweet with blistering blues based guitar and basic drumming giving way to melodic hooks like in "Your Touch" which is very catchy and has elements of pop without compromising their rough and tumble sound.
"You're the One" slows things down to a ballad tempo with a gauzy, slightly trippy love song that plays against the bands stereotype. "Just a Little Heat" and "Give Your Heart Away" find the band hopping back on the boogie train, while the bluesy wail of "Strange Desire" goes back to the bands roots and shows the groups knows its strength and plays to it admirably as they do with the blasting "Modern Times" and the lengthy workout "Goodbye Babylon." Anyone interested in unadorned rock and roll will find much to enjoy here.
"You're the One" slows things down to a ballad tempo with a gauzy, slightly trippy love song that plays against the bands stereotype. "Just a Little Heat" and "Give Your Heart Away" find the band hopping back on the boogie train, while the bluesy wail of "Strange Desire" goes back to the bands roots and shows the groups knows its strength and plays to it admirably as they do with the blasting "Modern Times" and the lengthy workout "Goodbye Babylon." Anyone interested in unadorned rock and roll will find much to enjoy here.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is the best hard rock album of the year (more like the best rock album since "Elephant") that i've heard at least, this is their most solid work since "The Big Come Up" my other favorite BLACK KEYS album, every song rocks hard especially
"Just A Little Heat", "Modern Times", "Goodbye Babylon", "Just Got To Be", "Give Your Heart Away" and "Black Door" this album is ridiculously good!!!!
"Just A Little Heat", "Modern Times", "Goodbye Babylon", "Just Got To Be", "Give Your Heart Away" and "Black Door" this album is ridiculously good!!!!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great album
For $5 this is the best album value I've gotten in a long time. Te Black Keys set the bar for this new genre, as far as I am concerned they are one of the best new bands to break... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Kapucom
4.0 out of 5 stars
Muddy
This album is very bluesy - it has a gritty, kinda muddy feel to it.
If you like bluesy stuff, there's a chance you'll like this.
If you not, this probably isn't for you.
If you like bluesy stuff, there's a chance you'll like this.
If you not, this probably isn't for you.
Published 17 days ago by JW
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of their best
this album along with Thickfreakness, Rubber Factory and Big Come Up is one of the best albums by these guys, Blues/Garage Rock GOLD, you can just play the album with out wanting... Read more
Published 19 days ago by Los Almighty
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fan of gritty blues? You will love this!!
Lots of others have already done detailed reveiws. I'll just add that I love this album. Have listened to it all the way through many times and can't get enough. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Thorr
3.0 out of 5 stars
So-so
Not as good as "El Camino" or "Brothers", but it's better than "Thickfreakness". It's for the Black Keys fans who are just looking for more of this band.
Published 24 days ago by Thomas J. Kotche
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't stop playing this album
Like eating syrup covered pancakes - with your hands. I know it is not new, but I just bought it and I love it.
Published 28 days ago by DP
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magic Potion
I admit that I didn't know of The Black Keys until I bought the "Brothers" album. That album was so good that I had to listen to every Black Keys album I could find. Read more
Published 1 month ago by BB1
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Their Best
I'm a big fan of the Black Keys and this is one of their better albums. I really like the gritty rock-blues sound they do so well.
Published 1 month ago by Studio Q, LLC (Consignment)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great music.
For some reason the Black Keys snuck by me without notice. Not anymore. This is a great cd that I will be listening to for years to come.
Published 1 month ago by William J McFerren
3.0 out of 5 stars
It was ok
I'm a big Black Keys fan, while this album is good, it doesn't compare to some of their other work.
Published 2 months ago by Mitchell Malcolm
Listmania!
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