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Attack & Release is the fifth studio album by American rock band The Black Keys. It was produced by Danger Mouse and was released on April 1, 2008. The sessions saw the band transitioning away from their "homemade" ethos to record-making; not only was it the first time that the band completed an album in a professional studio, but it was also the first time they hired an outside producer to work on a record.
Leading up to the recording sessions, drummer Patrick Carney wanted to change up the sound of his drums and envisioned two approaches to doing so. He said, "I had one of the Bonham reissue kits and I set that up in a live room. And then I knew I wanted a kind of '70s dead sound too, so I did the whole 'towels on the drums' thing."
Attack & Release debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200. The album was ranked 83 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest albums of the 2000s. The song "I Got Mine" was number 23 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008. In 2012, the album was certified gold in Canada.
User Album Review
Much like another release this month - the Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely - the Black Keys have finally (partly) renounced their lo-fi roots. They've done this by both getting into a real studio and working with Brian 'Danger Mouse' Burton behind the desk. What emerges is their clearest statement of rockin' intent yet. Attack & Release (what is it with bands naming albums after the knobs on their stomp boxes?) is still brimming with slabs of riffage and Patrick Carney's drums that thrash like a drowning squid, but it also has a palette that's broader and, yes, more radio-friendly.
The album was originally put together as a project for the late Ike Turner. But with the r 'n' b legend's demise the band and producer decided to claim it all for themselves. And thank goodness they did. This is psychedelic psych blues that hits all the right '70s buttons. Free's back-to-basics wailing springs to mind, but often Dan Auerbach's approach can remind one of the Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac of the late '60s too (especially on So He Won't Break). Well, this IS blues rock after all...
In the Akron duo's wake we've seen a whole host of minimal blues rock minimalists hit the scene from The White Stripes (with whom they're most often compared) to Wolfmother, but none have the technique of Auerbach when it comes to guitar wrangling. With this in mind it's odd that the band saw fit to rope in Tom Waits alumni, Mark Ribot, to beef up a few tracks (Lies, So He Won't Break). To be honest, although Ribot's a master, his contributions are barely discernable from Auerbach's.
But no matter, Attack...is a splendid kick in the ears. Perhaps aware that the basic garage template is wearing a trifle thin, the band allow all kind of fab noise nonsense to invade the picture. I Got Mine even veers close to space rock in its final two minutes. They may be called the Black Keys in abeyance to their adherence to the awkward side of the blues, but Attack & Release is a remarkably easy album to like.
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