The Black Keys: Brothers

The prolific Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney's sixth studio album's artwork is tremendous – nothing but text on a black background, which reads: "This is an album by the Black Keys. The name of the album is Brothers." It looks like a special edition Quentin Tarantino DVD, which, fittingly, songs like the sturm-und-drang blues of Next Girl ("She'll be nothing like my ex-girl") sound like they ought to soundtrack. Having branched out into a Damon Dash-orchestrated hip-hop collaboration with RZA, Mos Def and others on last year's Blakroc, the Ohioans now head back to the bluesy fuzz we know them for, with the slidin'-and-a-jammin' energy of tracks such as Howlin' for You and Ever Lasting Light. Yep, there's plenty of life here, but interest wavers when howling barroom guitar-note after howling barroom guitar-note wafts to the back of your brain. And perhaps someone should have told them that one song here sounds knicker-throwingly similiar to Tom Jones's 1971 gender-affirmation classic She's a Lady, too. Woah, woah, woah …