Today the Black Keys return with the new single “You Got To Lose”, a preview of the next album “Peaches!”, out May 1st on the Easy Eye Sound/Warner Records label. The music video, directed by EJ McLeavey-Fisher, captures the energy of the band's surprise concert last month at legendary Memphis juke joint Hernando's Hide-A-Way.
Watch the video for “You Got To Lose” below.
“Peaches!”, the duo's fourteenth studio album, collects ten essential and visceral songs. Dan Auerbach describes it as the band's most instinctive work since their 2002 debut, “The Big Come Up.” The album was born during a complex personal period, marked by the illness of Auerbach's father, a guest in his home in Nashville. At that moment Patrick Carney, bandmate and long-time friend, understands that returning to the studio would be the most direct way to react. “We weren't working on an album,” Auerbach says. “We were simply improvising, almost as if it were something just for us. It was a tense, difficult moment. My father's illness took away the desire to worry about superfluous details: I felt the need to scream, that's all.”
Recorded with an avowedly DIY approach, “Peaches!” resumes the philosophy of the beginning: musicians in the same room, very few overdubs, live performances. It is also the first album entirely mixed by the band themselves since “Magic Potion”, released in 2006. “Everything was recorded live, including the vocals, in a single take,” explains Patrick Carney. “Mixing it was complicated, but we wanted a rough, dirty, unfiltered sound.”
The songs reflect Auerbach and Carney's almost obsessive passion for vinyl collecting, fueled in recent years by Record Hang DJ sets and by a continuous activity of listening and rediscovery. “I was looking for 45s to play at the Record Hang,” says Auerbach, “but sometimes I would find a song and think it would be fun to do it live with Pat again.”
The cover of “Peaches!” uses a shot by William Eggleston, iconic Memphis photographer and declared reference for the band. The design and artistic direction of the packaging are handled by Michael Carney, Patrick's brother, already awarded a Grammy for the cover of “Brothers”. The album will be available on vinyl, CD, cassette and digital format.
In the coming months the Black Keys will headline the Gentilly Stage of the New Orleans Jazz Fest and headline some selected dates at the main summer festivals. Here is the tracklist of “Peaches!”.
- Where There's Smoke, There's Fire
- Stop Arguing Over Me
- Who's Been Foolin' You
- It's A Dream
- Tomorrow Night
- You Got To Lose
- Tell Me You Love Me
- She Does It Right
- Fireman Ring The Bell
- Nobody But You Baby
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
