The Black Keys - Delta Kream

Yea, count me in as I am waiting  for the release myself. Remember when I first heard them, it was on XM radios Buried Treasure show with Tom Petty playing stuff from his record collection, it was a weekly show and I loved it. I was already a Jr. Kimbrough fan so when that raw sound dropped I said who the hell are these guys, turned out to be just two nerds in a basement in Ohio. My favorite one is Rubber Factory. Enjoy the music

I love the song but it sounds terribly compressed to me. All of their other stuff is too.

For those interested, check out Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, a modern blues man from Mississippi. Auerbach plays some on his latest album. Maybe produces it as well?

And when I say modern I should have said current. His blues are raw, simple and traditional.

The new Black Keys sounds like the old Black Keys. Love it.

Listening to the album now. I knew it had Junior Kimbrough covers but there are also R.L. Burnside covers. Awesome! I have not researched titles I don’t recognize and don’t know if some of these songs are originals.

I don’t really care.

The Black Keys play hill country blues as authentically as anyone outside of the Mississippi hill country I have ever heard. And they do it without it being note for note covers. (There is no need for that in the blues anyway.) They add their own flair and style while remaining hardcore, raunchy and raw. That is a rare achievement. You can tell that Auerbach has done his homework.

I will buy this CD. I still cringe at the level of compression in their recordings but it is what it is. I don’t expect or need high levels of studio production for raw country blues. But nothing sounds good overly compressed.

Are the Black Keys Still Underdogs? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)