Thickfreakness by The Black Keys

Thickfreakness, the second studio album from Akron, Ohio duo the Black Keys, came out in 2003 as their first record for Fat Possum, with Epitaph handling it in the UK and Europe. The Big Come Up had landed them the deal, and nothing about the new label changed the method: Patrick Carney produced it himself, the pair still working in makeshift rooms rather than proper studios.

That's the whole charm. Dan Auerbach's guitar is fat, fuzzed and filthy, Carney pounds the drums like he's trying to break through the basement floor, and the songs owe their raw, swampy drive to the blues heroes Auerbach draws on, from Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside to Howlin' Wolf. It's garage rock with mud on its boots, two guys making the noise of a whole juke joint band, and it helped build the underground following that Rubber Factory would turn into something bigger the next year.

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