“Let’s Rock” by The Black Keys

“Let’s Rock”, the ninth album from the Black Keys, landed on June 28, 2019, through Easy Eye Sound and Nonesuch, and it ended the longest silence of their career: five years since Turn Blue, with Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney off chasing side projects and producing other artists. They came back stripped down. After four records with Danger Mouse, the Akron duo produced this one themselves and threw out the keyboards, leaving just guitar, drums and voice, and Carney pitched the whole thing as a tribute to the electric guitar.

It sounds like it: fuzzy, sunny, riff-first boogie that wants nothing more than to get your hips moving. "Lo/Hi" made history as the first song ever to top Billboard's Mainstream Rock, Adult Alternative, Rock Airplay and Alternative charts all at once, with "Eagle Birds" and "Go" close behind. Critics mostly liked it, even if plenty called it well built but familiar.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.