The Black Keys – El Camino (10th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) (2011/2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

The Black Keys – El Camino (10th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) (2011/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 03:16:46 minutes | 2,31 GB | Genre: Garage Rock, Blues Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

The Black Keys will release a special tenth anniversary edition of their landmark seventh studio album El Camino via Nonesuch Records on November 5, 2021. El Camino (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) will be available in several formats including a Super Deluxe edition of five vinyl LPs or four CDs, featuring a remastered version of the original album, a previously unreleased Live in Portland, ME concert recording, a BBC Radio 1 Zane Lowe session from 2012 and a 2011 Electro-Vox session.

At some point every band makes a move towards commercial success. Accolades for purity of motivation and peerless references are great, but selling a few albums carries its own kind of rush. Oh sure, by 2011, The Black Keys had already hit paydirt licensing music for Victoria’s Secret ads, among other brands, but the duo wanted their music rather than their opportunism to be respected. Routinely crediting The Cramps and The Clash while still sounding like the rough ‘n’ ready garage band from Akron, Ohio, that they’d been since the beginning made the journey to larger musical success problematic. Enter Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, who produced guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s preceding album, 2010’s Brothers; recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, it continued the Black Keys’ move away from a lo-fi sound. Advised by Burton to record more upbeat material that would play well in the arena-sized venues they were aiming for, the pair convened at Auerbach’s new Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville and began to work up fresh material. Like all Black Keys records, riff rock and Auerbach and Carney’s back-and-forth interplay are the foundation, but now their usual dirty blues vibe gave way to a more straight ahead early rock and roll tone. Danger Mouse also became an active part of the songwriting process for the first time. Fast tempos and more pronounced pop hooks were the immediate focus. The opener “Lonely Boy,” is impossible to resist. In “Dead and Gone” handclaps and the album’s three female background singers Leisa Hans, Heather Rigdon and Ashley Wilcoxson beef up the poppy choruses. Recorded by Kennie Takahashi and Collin Dupuis, and mixed by Tchad Blake, the sound here is enhanced with plenty of reverb making everything that much larger in the process. Tunes like the working girl paean, “Money Maker,” where Auerbach sings, “I wanna buy some time but don’t have a dime,” sound oversized and very much arena-ready. “Sister” is the Keys’ elemental riff rock at its best, this time fleshed out by Danger Mouse on keyboard. Touches like the squiggly guitar line in “Run Right Back” confirm musical evolutions in their usual jam-it-up method. This reissue contains 20 tracks from a previously unreleased concert from Portland, Maine, an 11-track BBC Radio 1 session from 2012, and a 9-track 2011 Electro-Vox rehearsal session recorded prior to the 2012 El Camino tour. While both live sets are stacked with tracks from Brothers (“Howlin for You,” “Tighten Up”) and El Camino, the BBC set has a closer, densely packed sound, while the live sound of the Portland show in front of a rabid audience is huge and reverberant. The rehearsal session is predictably loose with slower tempos, though the arrangements are similar to what was eventually released. This reissue does bring up questions: is ten years long enough to create the demand and perspective necessary for a successful reissue? Have Keys fans even stopped listening to their original copies yet or is this more rampant commercialism from a band famous for it? Of course, it may also be that Auerbach and Carney are closing a chapter. Stay tuned for the next decade. – Robert Baird

Tracklist:
1-01. The Black Keys – Lonely Boy (2021 Remaster) (03:13)
1-02. The Black Keys – Dead and Gone (2021 Remaster) (03:41)
1-03. The Black Keys – Gold on the Ceiling (2021 Remaster) (03:44)
1-04. The Black Keys – Little Black Submarines (2021 Remaster) (04:11)
1-05. The Black Keys – Money Maker (2021 Remaster) (02:57)
1-06. The Black Keys – Run Right Back (2021 Remaster) (03:16)
1-07. The Black Keys – Sister (2021 Remaster) (03:25)
1-08. The Black Keys – Hell of a Season (2021 Remaster) (03:44)
1-09. The Black Keys – Stop Stop (2021 Remaster) (03:29)
1-10. The Black Keys – Nova Baby (2021 Remaster) (03:27)
1-11. The Black Keys – Mind Eraser (2021 Remaster) (03:14)
1-12. The Black Keys – Howlin’ for You (Live in Portland, ME) (03:45)
1-13. The Black Keys – Next Girl (Live in Portland, ME) (03:30)
1-14. The Black Keys – Run Right Back (Live in Portland, ME) (03:41)
1-15. The Black Keys – Same Old Thing (Live in Portland, ME) (03:17)
1-16. The Black Keys – Dead and Gone (Live in Portland, ME) (04:06)
1-17. The Black Keys – Gold on the Ceiling (Live in Portland, ME) (04:05)
1-18. The Black Keys – Thickfreakness (Live in Portland, ME) (03:24)
1-19. The Black Keys – Girl Is on My Mind (Live in Portland, ME) (05:08)
1-20. The Black Keys – I’ll Be Your Man / Your Touch (Live in Portland, ME) (07:16)
1-21. The Black Keys – Little Black Submarines (Live in Portland, ME) (05:38)
1-22. The Black Keys – Money Maker (Live in Portland, ME) (03:32)
1-23. The Black Keys – Strange Times (Live in Portland, ME) (03:11)
1-24. The Black Keys – Chop and Change (Live in Portland, ME) (03:55)
1-25. The Black Keys – Nova Baby (Live in Portland, ME) (04:03)
1-26. The Black Keys – Ten Cent Pistol (Live in Portland, ME) (06:16)
1-27. The Black Keys – Tighten Up (Live in Portland, ME) (03:51)
1-28. The Black Keys – Lonely Boy (Live in Portland, ME) (04:01)
1-29. The Black Keys – Everlasting Light (Live in Portland, ME) (03:40)
1-30. The Black Keys – She’s Long Gone (Live in Portland, ME) (04:11)
1-31. The Black Keys – I Got Mine (Live in Portland, ME) (05:32)
1-32. The Black Keys – Howlin’ for You (BBC Session) (03:27)
1-33. The Black Keys – Next Girl (BBC Session) (03:10)
1-34. The Black Keys – Gold on the Ceiling (BBC Session) (03:48)
1-35. The Black Keys – Thickfreakness (BBC Session) (03:26)
1-36. The Black Keys – I’ll Be Your Man (BBC Session) (03:25)
1-37. The Black Keys – Your Touch (BBC Session) (03:03)
1-38. The Black Keys – Little Black Submarines (BBC Session) (04:45)
1-39. The Black Keys – Dead and Gone (BBC Session) (04:04)
1-40. The Black Keys – Tighten Up (BBC Session) (03:45)
1-41. The Black Keys – Lonely Boy (BBC Session) (03:11)
1-42. The Black Keys – I Got Mine (BBC Session) (05:30)
1-43. The Black Keys – Dead and Gone (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:47)
1-44. The Black Keys – Gold on the Ceiling (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:37)
1-45. The Black Keys – Howlin’ for You (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:25)
1-46. The Black Keys – Lonely Boy (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:15)
1-47. The Black Keys – Money Maker (Electro-Vox Sessions) (02:59)
1-48. The Black Keys – Next Girl (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:02)
1-49. The Black Keys – Run Right Back (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:24)
1-50. The Black Keys – Sister (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:27)
1-51. The Black Keys – Tighten Up (Electro-Vox Sessions) (03:32)

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