- Rock
- 2009
- Buy the CD
Reviewed by Ed Murray
Keep It Hid was produced and engineered by Auerbach at his own studio, and features him playing a variety of instruments, including drums, guitar, percussion, and keyboards. Many of Auerbach’s friends and family play on the album, including his uncle James Quine, who contributes vocal harmony and electric guitar on the track "Street Walkin." Most songs sound like there’s a full band behind Auerbach, whether or not that’s actually the case. Other musicians include fellow Ohioans Jessica Lea Mayfield, who sings on the track "When the Night Comes," and Bob Cesare, who plays drums on "Whispered Words," a song originally written by Auerbach’s father. Like most Black Keys records, Keep It Hid sounds live and organic, just spontaneous enough, and richly textured.
There’s also plenty of exploration through areas you certainly don’t find on a Black Keys record. "Trouble Weighs a Ton" and "Goin\' Home" are sparse, acoustic numbers (the former with fantastic vocal harmonies, the latter with mandolin), "Heartbroken, In Disrepair," is updated psychedelia. Elsewhere, you’ll find soul, R&B, folk, a hint of gospel…and yet, the whole thing doesn’t sound too dissimilar from a Black Keys outing (it’s still Auerbach’s voice, guitar and overall tone, after all).
After their first four albums, you’d think the Black Keys – Auerbach and bandmate/drummer Patrick Carney – would have explored every possible nuance of the two-piece guitar-drum lineup and dirty blues oeuvre. But 2008’s Attack & Release took the formula to newer, more soulful and groovier places, and the album debuted on the Billboard Top 200 chart at #14, making it the Black Keys’ highest position to date. Bringing in Gnarls Barkley’s Danger Mouse to produce probably didn’t hurt, and certainly introduced a new dynamic to the signature Black Keys sound.
Keep It Hid, though, goes one better, in that it’s just as much a progression of Auerbach’s songwriting and arranging skills, which now seem to have been kept somewhat in check by the Black Keys’, er, limitations.
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