The Black Keys - Ohio Players Album

Like many couples in a long-term relationship, the Black Keys decided to look outside their union for inspiration when it came time to record Ohio Players, the band’s twelfth album. 

No strangers to extracurricular collaborations—guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach practically lives at his Easy Eye Sound, producing records for Robert Finley, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Marcus King, Early James, and Shannon and the Clams in the last few years—the band hasn’t brought additional musicians into the studio since reviving their partnership in 2019 with “Let’s Rock”, a back-to-basics platter that seemed to reject the psychedelic haze engulfing 2014’s Turn Blue. 

Turn Blue, like so many of the albums the Black Keys released on Nonesuch between 2008 and 2014, was co-produced by Danger Mouse, a collaborator who helped Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney move far beyond the band’s grimy garage-blues roots. After working with Danger Mouse, the Black Keys prized production—the tactical, physical sound of a record—as much as the song itself, an aesthetic that carries through to Ohio Players. Pointedly avoiding the expansive exploration of their Obama-era albums, the Black Keys instead rely on the bag of tricks they’ve developed over their career intent on creating interesting juxtapositions from familiar sounds.

 

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Tracklist

1. This Is Nowhere
2. Don’t Let Me Go
3. Beautiful People (Stay High)
4. On The Game
5. Only Love Matters
6. Candy and Her Friends (feat. Lil Noid)
7. I Forgot To Be Your Lover
8. Please Me (Till I’m Satisfied)
9. You’ll Pay
10. Paper Crown (feat. Beck and Juicy J)
11. Live Till I Die
12. Read Em And Weep
13. Fever Tree
14. Every Time You Leave