Category:
Rock / Roots / Blues

Try if you like:
Queens Of The Stone Age, Spoon, The Strokes, White Stripes, Wolfmother

Persistence has never been more than a hit away for The Black Keys. Thanks to the success of their 2010 release "Brothers", blues and grit on a simple two-man platform is quickly becoming the here and now again. But spend some time with The Black Keys debut release, The Big Come Up, and  you may realize just how oblivious you've been all these years.

Back to back, tracks four and five "Countdown" and "The Breaks" respectively, have an undeniable sound.  Of the thirteen total, two cover songs can be found.  "Leavin' Trunk" written by  Sleepy John Estes and "She Said, She Said" by The Beatles are both confident tackles.  Probably the most well known track here is the groove-laden "I'll Be Your Man". 

 Widely responsible for the rise to daytime radio, this track also helped put the HBO series "Hung" in the limelight. One thing you'll notice listening to The Black Keys in general is a lot of rhythms will sound almost familiar, but very signature at the same time.  Such as "Yearning", which leans more towards a 50's Blues simplicity. The final track "240 Years Before Your Time" is one of those pesky 23-minuter's. Begining the first few minutes with more Blues concentrate, after 20-minutes of silence, a bit of a Incubus S.C.I.E.N.C.E sampling with yet another staunch riffing.

As long as you're not turned away by some repetitive hooks, this album has a firm grip on Rock/Blues and TBK was just getting started.