Reviewed by James Orton

The smell of Golden Virginia Tobacco and Whisky seeps from your speakers as a tortured wail hollers the blues of a ‘desperate man’. This is ‘the Black Keys’. An album recorded in an abandoned tire factory that places you somewhere in the midst of a blues jamming session between friends and seated beside Jimi’s amp at Woodstock as the final bars of ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ ring out. Using just Guitar, Drum and Vocals, the old adage ‘less is more’ brings an intimacy to these tracks that make you feel as if you’re actually there as the song finally falls together in the hands of the composers. This is Heavy Soul, dragged kicking and screaming from a sixties southern blues club and thrust centre stage, here and now.

James Orton is from Readings Carlton