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Album Details

• Artist: The Black Keys
• Album: Rubber Factory
• Label: Fat Possum
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-12-10

The Blues duo know as The Black Keys are already on their third album (second for Fat Possum) and are blowing people away. I enjoyed Thickfreakness almost immediately but Rubber Factory took some warming up to. This, of course, means that Rubber Factory will be a much better album in the long run, one of those albums that you keep coming back to time after time for a good blues listen. Whenever a band actually makes as just a basic duo, you know they are good musicians. There is no real room for them to make mistakes. Although they peg themselves (or critics do) as blues, they probably have more in common with The White Stripes with the duo approach to their music. It's funny because even though Auerbach and Carney get rocking on most of the album the highlights for me are the slower tracks like "The Lengths". There just seems like so much soul in that song that it stands out as one of the best songs on the album. But that's where The Black Keys are smart, they play both spectrums. Listen to "10 AM Automatic" and you can't help but start tapping your foot. Tracks like this remind me of Big Sugar back around 500 Pounds. The entire album comes off raw but that's most of the appeal of the band. Rubber Factory is a fantastic album that honestly gets better with every listen. It took me about 4-5 listens before I felt this way but I'm there and this album will be with me forever.

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