A new album by the Black Keys, Ohio Players, will arrive on April 5.
So far, they’ve released the album’s first single, “Beautiful People (Stay High)”, written by Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney, Beck and Dan the Automator.
According to Carney, the Black Keys still had plenty of steam after finishing their 2022 album Dropout Boogie. “By the end of the year,” he told NME in 2023, “we had 17 new ideas down and we just kept going.”
Then, Carney said, Beck paid the band a visit at their studio Easy Eye in Nashville. “We started writing with him and that was the beginning of what we’re finishing now,” he explained, describing it as “an epic album that’s our best record for sure.”
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Other contributors to the album include Greg Kurstin (Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks) and Noel Gallagher. “He’s hilarious and super talented,” Carney said of Gallagher. “We were referring to him as ‘The Chord Lord’ because he’s just a perfectionist with it.
“It’s reflective of our DJ nights in a way; it’s a big Saturday night party record,” he continued. “We just had people come through the studio and throw a little bit of special sauce at each song. There are just so many different collaborations, but there’s a thread through it, with Dan and I filtering everything. It just feels really fucking amazing.”
“No matter who we work with, it never feels like we’re sacrificing who we are,” Auerbach said in a press release. “We’d never worked harder to make a record. It’s never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.”
The press release also noted that an “extensive international tour” will be announced at a later time.
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There’s a range of music to look forward to this year.
Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp
