This is, and will always be on of my favorite albums. In the past week, I started listening to Brothers all the way through and could physically feel the connection that I have to this great album. I remember being late on the Black Keys train, and one day in sophomore year of high school going to CD Central with a group of friends: Tony Stone, Danial Niazi, Lucie Allen, and Emma Clardy. I asked whoever was working what their favorite Black Keys album was and received an answer lacking in insight and sans preference. Understandable, lord only knows how many times people at music stores must be asked for their recommendation on albums and artists! Since buying that cd, I have also bought the vinyl that much to my joy came with a complimentary cd copy. This was very much so necessary as my first cd got scratched to hell while being played on repeat in my dad’s 2001 green Honda Accord. The original copy I bought was temperature sensitive, so it would be black until it was warmed up by being played in the car, and then would show the label.

This album provided me with the perfect amount of angst. It certainly doesn’t feel like a happy album, with songs such as These Days, Never Gonna Give You Up, and one of my favorites: Unknown Brother, which is driven by some melancholic and wistful melodies. A sort of dark and brooding theme is brought to a bit of a wicked place in the songs Ten Cent Pistol and Sinister Kid.

One of my favorite feelings is when an album creates it’s own atmosphere, and in this case I can feel the thick, still, and stale air being moved by the surging amplifiers and drums that make up this work. It feels as though Brothers was created in an abandoned small space, and much to my delight that’s exactly where it was produced! This album was the first in over 40 years to be recorded in the world famous Muscle Shoals, down in Alabama. Obviously the “air” of the album is dependent on production, but you can’t help feel that the locale for recording this album had a large impact on the resulting sound.

If I’m experiencing a crisp fall day with leaves changing, temperatures dropping, and the shining sun feeling like it can barely break through the layer of cold air sitting over where I am, I’m going to feel motivated to put this album on. For me it feels synonymous with driving in Autumn with windows down along Old Frankfort Pike or Delong, following the winding roads and gliding over the hills.