Dan Auerbach is quite an interesting guy. When he is
not fronting one of the biggest bands on the planet the Black Keys, he is
producing for other artists, recording with hip hop artists, and now he is
releasing the first album under his new side project the Arcs, “Yours, Dreamily”.
Music fans have had a taste of the likely sound of
this album for a while, with pre-released tracks “Stay in My Corner”, “Put a
Flower in Your Pocket”, and “Outta My Mind”. And, right from the get go these
tracks hinted at a swirling blusey/soulful record to come. But, has the actual
album delivered on the early promise of those tracks?
Well, overall, I would say yes. In terms of the “new’
tracks which were not put out into the music sphere pre-release, most of them
do stack up and see Auerbach and his band, a band that includes the very
talented Lee Michels from El Michel’s Affair and Truth & Soul Records on
drums exploring different blusey, psychedelic and soulful sounds. Although similar
in nature to recent Black Key’s records such as “Brothers” and “Turn Blue”,
there is still a lot going on in these new bunch of tracks that shows Auerbach
is willing to experiment with what is quickly becoming his stock-standard mix
of soul, blues and psychedelia.
“Pistol Made of Bones” is a southern stomper complete
with horns, a barking dog and plenty of swagger, while on “Cold Companion”,
Auerbach heads into what I would describe as progressive blues territory, with
the backing vocals sounding very 70's progressive rock-like. I say that in a
good way of course. “The Arc” is a grungy blues rocker, not to dissimilar to
the material seen on Auerbach’s debut solo album. And, although not as good as
some of the more psychedelic moments on “Yours, Dreamily”, it does its job as
the sort of token stadium rocker track on the album nicely. On “Nature’s Child”,
Auerbach and the band have a John Lennon moment circa early-70's, which is
pleasant enough without being amazing, while “Velvet Ditch” has a smooth,
contemporary R&B feel to it, as well as featuring two funky sax and guitar
solos. The album then moves to its finale with one of the standout tracks “Chains
of Love”, which has some stellar female backing vocals and an infectious rhythmic
groove to boot. A great track, and very different to Auerbach’s more traditional
material. The album then winds down with tracks such as the simplistically sweet
R&B of “Rosie (Ooh la la)”, and album closer “Searching the Blue” which is
a very nice Stax-sounding soul ballad.
On the whole, this is not unusual territory for
Auerbach, but at the same time this is definitely not a Black Keys replica
album by any stretch. The added presence of other musicians I would say gave
the tracks more groove, and allowed Auerbach to play around more with different
textures and rhythms. Something he might be more limited to with the Black
Keys. On listening to this album you can certainly hear Auerbach playing with
new sounds and musical ideas, and “Yours, Dreamily”, all in all really is a
very solid contemporary, but at the same time authentic soul record. Well worth
a listen I would say.
B+
- Sam
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