The Black Keys - El Camino

The Black Keys - Recent Nashville transplants have pretty much redefined and carried the torch for raw, driving and back to basics rock and roll for a decade -- so when Key-man Dan Auerbach says the follow up to 2010's Grammy winning, million-selling Brothers is "raw, driving and back to basics" you know you're in for a white knuckle, tops-down ride...Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, who co-produced the band's 2008 Attack and Release, is again riding shotgun here // Release: El Camino (December 6, Nonesuch) // Sounds like: when you're all about the minimalist approach you'd better have some consistently great songs -- and El Camino again reconfirms Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney's innate ability to thread a serious melodic hook into The Keys' arsenal of pummeling, majestic guitar riffs and 12-cylinder rhythmic thrust...

Quote: “I've never been into guitar solos. I really like when every instrument in the band is a rhythm instrument. This record has a lot of that going on -- guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards all working together as a rhythm instrument. But unlike Brothers, which has more of these slower songs with an open feeling, [the new LP] is definitely fast." -- Dan Auerbach to Spin // What we like: Drawing on the blazing, off-kilter rockabilly of The Cramps and the heavy, sweaty punk bluster of The Clash, El Camino is a breathless blast of tightly channeled, fuzzed out and exhilarating rock and roll..."Lonely Boy" and "Gold In the Ceiling" careen headlong into a psyched-out Hell's Angels 60's soundtrack while "Sister" rolls with a killer, hemi-powered rhythm section and sing-a-long chorus and "Little Black Submarines" switches gears as a simple acoustic folk lament..."the most powerful, compelling rock album of the year" raves The Independent -- and who's to argue?

The Black Keys - "Sister" (from El Camino)

The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy" (from El Camino)

The Black Keys invite you to stream five songs from El Camino after the jump in return for your email address...

Photo Credit: Danny Clinch