Album - Keep It Hid
Released - Feb 10, 2009 (Nonesuch Records)
Dan Auerbach’s solo album is like that “official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle” dad pointed out hiding majestically behind the desk after all the Christmas gifts had been opened.
Assuming, your name is Ralphie and you live in fear of that intangible parent figure incessantly waving their finger at you chanting, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” denying you the happiness of a warm gun after pelting Black Bart right between the eyes.
Yes, that was two references. Yes, for the people who are nice enough to frequent my little site, this is another obscure musician I think everyone should love and admire… because my taste is impeccable and speaks to all walks of life.Yes, that was sarcasm.
Dan Auerbach is one half of the Black Keys, the soulful, incendiary blues-rock duo hailing from Akron, Ohio, and easily could pass as a love child of Gregg Allman.
Keep It Hid, Auerbach’s first solo album, surpasses being just another solo effort from an arrogant vocalist burdened by a band who refuses to experiment - it’d be especially hard to defend given the fact the Black Keys is comprised of just Auerbach and drummer, Patrick Carney.
In an interview with Paste when asked why he chose the direction that he did, Auerbach said, “It’s like if an actor were only allowed to make a movie with the same cast as the same character for the rest of his life. It’s very strange that people think like that.”
Keep It Hid goes beyond what the Black Keys' exultant fifth album, Attack and Release, managed to do – which was take the staple blues composition, fuse it with a rootsy Southern Rock sound, jam it into an old Peavy amp and render the listener incapable of breathing without an auxiliary ventilator.
Auerbach is best known for his gut-busting guitar licks and two-string chord plucking most apparent in his work with the Black Keys. He’s built a catalog of simple blues-focused, foot-stomping music and kept tightly to the mold for four albums, until the critically acclaimed Attack and Release, which as stated earlier was an absolute triumph.
Beginning with the opening track, Trouble Weighs a Ton, Auerbach eases in with a doggerel acoustic tune - something most Keys fans are not entirely familiar hearing. His soothingly ragged voice discretely burrows its way in, displaying an enthusiasm to, sorry for the cliché, venture out on a limb instrumentally.
Opening with the lyrics, “What’s wrong dear brother, have you lost your faith?” the album boasts the same ambiguous subjects and personally ascetic lyrics which Keys fans love and connect with.
Experimenting does come with its set-backs and everyone is susceptible to making flawed works of genius.
Exhibit A: Mean Monsoon, a Doors-esque track with an opening lick resembling Derek and the Dominos' Layla a bit too much, which can be forgiven, especially given the fact its composition and lyrical integrity are routinely aware that Auerbach is creating a gradient slope of tracks increasingly harder for him to one-up.
“The one thing I didn’t want to do is to try to sound different from the Black Keys,” Auerbach said on his website. It doesn't rely too heavily on the Black Keys sound as much as it expounds on it. He’s still the same Dan Auerbach as always, just somewhat matured, wiser and quasi-evolved in his music.
Keep It Hid touches on the infinite talent engrossing all that is Dan Auerbach, never overstating himself, never denying his abilities. He has yet to tap completely into the azure reserves of his talent though. He’s a guy who creates a reverent sound, adding enough of his soul and complexity into the music to make the album both unyielding and profound.
www.myspace.com/danauerbachmusic
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