Customer Reviews

Magic Potion

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!!!!

This is by far the black keys best album hands down. I love every song on here. Some of their earlier albums plus the one that came out after this I have to skip some of the songs, but not with this album. Every song on here is GREAT. Buy it NOW. You wont be disappointed.

Yeah, well I don't write many reviews. And I don't really want to categorize them as they have there own style of music.

Are they good?? No. More like being on the verge of being great.

Some bands tend to play straight chord progressions that are stock. Nothing wrong with that when playing the Blues but it gets old after

a fashion. Also if you are doing that the guitar must sing and weep.

They seem to have the IT factor and that doesn't come often when you are playing bluesy soulfull music.

For a two man band I was impressed and for me it takes alot.

Been listening to a vast array of noise since to very early 60's and

some say I could play a bit.

If you like stripped down music with a sound that isn't recyled this band would probably be for you. I heard many influences when listening to them

and even a few Hendrix like blasts. But utimately they have their own sound and it's damned good.

Big B.

Great rock that one can listen straight through - 'One I love' is a slow haunting ballad, so emotional and loving that the guitars weep.

I am 32 with somewhat young parents. So I grew up with my parents blaring Journey, Led Zepplin, Steve Miller Band, and Cat Stevens. I know what good rock is and these guys are IT.

Hearing all the greats growing up, I recognize many of their styles in the Black Keys music and none of it comes off as a cheap copy-cat sound like so many bands tend to. These two guys have talent of their own and they play music that just plain sounds good.

It's the kind of music you want to hear when you go out drinking beer with the guys or when you're driving in your car, or when you want to go out and hear a damn good live show.

I can't seem to take this CD out of rotation - it's really damn good!

The Black Keys have been one of my favorite groups in the past few years. They have taken the two-man approach to exciting moments. They may be the only duo that rivals the White Stripes in a serious way. Like Cream, they are obsessed with early blues. For some reason they have had a million releases and have been on a few different labels. I can't keep up. The quality has always been high. On songs like "Just Got To Be" and "Your Touch" they show us that the fire is still there. "Your Touch" may be one of their best songs. It is simple and powerful. "You're The One" sounds almost like soft psychedelic rock. It has a lot of space and airy mood. "Just A Little Heat" has a little Led Zeppelin type riff. "Modern Times" is another heavy rocker. "Black Door" and "Elevator" are amazing songs to end this with. This record contains everything good about this band. They have struck gold once more. I look forward to the show. Magic Potion may refer to the fact that there is something magical about life and music. When things are going great there is a magical feeling in the air. The Black Keys are a band that can capture that energy.

I don't want to like this band, or this album, as much as I do. It bugs me a little bit that they won't add a bassist so Auerbach can rip some screeching blues solos full of passion and heartache. I can sense that he wants to let loose on this record more than any of their others - but can't because of the restrictions that their 2 person set up inevitably will always bring. All that having been said, this record is nothing short of amazing. I've only had it for a few days and I can't stop listening to it. This is far and away the Black Keys' strongest record to date. The singing on this record captures the blues more than any white rock band I have ever heard - from Zeppelin to Stevie Ray Vaughn and ZZ Top and the rest. Mr. Auerbach was blessed with a voice that came straight from the murkiest waters of the Mississippi Delta. Listening to the Black Keys - especially on this record - is like being transported to a time and place that is long gone. They make the blues exciting and invigorating again. This does not sound like a white blues-rock band. Magic Potion is fuzzed-out heart-wrenching pure blues from start to finish. It is one of the most urgent, honest, emotional records I have heard in some time. The riffs are brutal yet silky smooth, and Dan Carney's drums hit hard throughout. As for the singing, I think Dan Auerbach has the best voice in music today. I'll refrain from an exhaustive discussion of the individual songs. Suffice it to say there is not one remotely weak track on this disc. The songs are so strong you'll scarely notice the stripped down minimalism of the Black Keys' sound. With this release the Black Keys have gone from the best indie novelty act around to a full-blown rock and roll powerhouse. If they added some more members (or just a bassist - come on Dan we want to hear some jamming!) and thickened up their sound without losing that garage rock edge, I really feel this band could be rock and roll superstars, one of the great groups of this generation (these guys are so much better than Wolfmother, who I like also). With Magic Potion they are well on their way.

To tell you the truth, I was a bit dissapointed when I heard the new songs on Myspace. I thought they were ok, but nothing compared to their older work. I was gladly proven wrong when I got the album. Granted, it's no Rubber Factory, but these guys are still rocking on their 4th release and first for Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion.

This album does feel like a collection of outtakes from Rubber Factory. The same feel and production is there, like they recorded in an abandoned warehouse. The first song, Just Got to Be, is a great album opener (I heard them play it live in Cincinatti a few months ago), and other tracks such as Your Touch, Give Your Heart Away, and Modern Times are all as consistent as the best work off of Thickfreakness and The Big Come Up.

I guess it's the slightly experimental songs on the album that I don't care for. You're The One sounds too much like a lazy Kinks song, and Strange Desire almost has a weird-Pixies thing going on.

All complaints aside, though, Magic Potion is a fine record that will still establish their growing fan base, or possibly recruit some new ones as well. If you enjoy Junior Kimbrough, Led Zeppelin, or just rock in general, get this album.