It’s inevitable: Working on “Recommended Components,” as I am now, leads to fantasies of new gear, new systems, outstanding new heights of recorded playback! I have to restrain myself, focus. Focus, Daniel-san, focus.
Look eye, always look eye.Last April’s “Recommended Components” list was created, in part, while listening to Psychic Ills’ Mirror Eye, in a cabin on a cliff overlooking the mighty and restless Pacific Ocean, so it had a kind of acid-laced, overcast, far-off feel to it. (Didn’t it?) This particular iteration of “Recommended Components,” however, is being built while listening to the Black Keys’ Brothers, here at the office, while outside the New York City streets are radiating waves of heat, skyscrapers are screaming white light, and tourists seek shelter in crowded taverns. This list of “Recommended Components” will be sweaty, sunburned, and gritty with salt.
“These Days,” the closing track on Brothers is remarkable for its piercing sadness, heavy subject matter, and beautiful vocal performance by Dan Auerbach. Never has he sounded so truly soulful. Also, I think there’s timpani in this. Dramatic!
After all, look what we’ve been through
Men come in different shades
It’s how we’re made The little house on Ellis Drive
Is where I felt most alive
The oak tree covered that old Ford
I miss it, Lord—oh, I miss it, Lord
But what’s worse is, if they could,
Would I change my ways? Damn! Sad songs say so much, and this one is really messed up. I mean, that’s some serious palms-in-eye-sockets stuff right there. The guitars weep and the drums pound and Auerbach delivers the song like his life depends on it. Brothers was recorded at famed Muscle Shoals. It’s the band’s sixth full-length album, their third for Nonesuch, and their highest charting, debuting at #3 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 73,000 copies. Good for the Black Keys; they deserve it.
