Growth demands a catalyst. It took them eight records to do it, but with Turn Blue, The Black Keys have finally broken free of sexing up color-by-numbers blues jams, a formula that’s led to staggering success and arena status for the Akron duo. Surprisingly little of the fuzzed-out classic rock flare of 2011’s El Camino exists here, in its place a welcome shift, a psychedelic lace on meditative exploration of love’s disillusion.
Frontman Dan Auerbach told Rolling Stone that the goal was to make a “headphone record,” and if there was ever a Black Keys album to get high, grab the headphones and dissolve into the sound with, it’s Turn Blue. This is largely attributed to the psychedelic fuel of producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, whose knack for nuance and synth-mischief enables Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney to break out of the mold that drew copycat criticism from Jack White’s own lips.
The depth of weight and darkness of Turn Blue is undoubtedly inspired by the personal turmoil Auerbach has gone through in a public divorce over the last year, at times laid out in literal terms. “The house it burned, but nothing there was mine,” Auerbach laments on “In Our Prime,” a nod to when his wife reportedly set fire to their Nashville home last year. Though the album is a requiem for love’s broken bonds, suturing wounds through sonic exorcism, it’s done without an overt use of over-tread venomous edge. Auerbach’s guitar fills speak as loudly as his words, the moments between choruses and verses mined for magic rather than predictable bluesy pathways between points of interest.
While he’s likely the catalyst for the Black Keys’ decision to pull away from their signature big-hook arena-blast blues grooves, the magic of Burton’s devil is evident in the detail of subtlety. Such is the case with the bass-forward, synth-driven “10 Lovers” and on “Year in Review,” which builds on Carney’s pounding deep-snare intro and a throbbing bass with choral ethereality, tambourines and the kind of quiet delicates that make a man thankful for a good set of headphones. Turn Blue is rife with percussion flare, keyboard indulgence and tiny sonic trinkets that fans will revel in.
Breaking his own mold, an echoing Auerbach channels Smokey Robinson with gentle grace on “Waiting on Words” through a sweet-spot slow-step 4/4. But concerns that the Keys have gone entirely off the reservation are settled both through the formulaic fuzz of “It’s Up To You Now” and at the album’s exit, where the encore-baiting high spirit of “Gotta Get Away” brings an inescapable feel-good singalong flare.
“I went from San Berd’oo to Kalamazoo, just to get away from you,” Auerbach teases on the track, over a tambourine and a sunshine-glow organ run alongside a Stones-esque riff. It’s an easy favorite among less experimentation-inclined fans, a necessary coda on an album that dabbles in conservative alienation on its way to being the most inventive, experimental and rewarding Black Keys record thus far.
