Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, collectively The Black Keys, couldn’t telegraph their present state of mind any clearer than they do on the opening, and title, track of their forthcoming thirteenth album together. Chiming keyboards usher in a ringing guitar melody, a gambolling rhythm on its heels. The first words out Auberach’s mouth on the record are: ‘Let it go… You’ve got to let it all go’. If that wasn’t specific enough, there’s the title itself: No Rain, No Flowers.
After their well-documented annus-horribilis of 2024, which included an aborted US arena tour, a stillborn album, Ohio Players, and then their wholesale firing of their managers (industry heavyweights Irving Azoff and Steve Moir) and publicist, it casts the pair as somewhat more world-weary but nonetheless defiant after the storm. All the more emphatic for the backdrop being an irresistible three-minute pop-rock confection.
