Brothers
Studio album by The Black Keys
Released	May 18, 2010 (2010-05-18)
Recorded	2009 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, The Bunker On Apple in Portland, Oregon, Easy Eye Sound System and Soil of the South Studios in San Diego, California
Genre	Garage rock, blues rock
Length	55:29
Label	Nonesuch
Producer	The Black Keys, Mark Neill, Danger Mouse
The Black Keys chronology
Blakroc (2009) Brothers (2010) El Camino (2011)
Singles from Brothers
"Tighten Up" Released: April 2010 "Howlin' for You" Released: 2011

Brothers is the sixth studio album by American rock duo The Black Keys.^[1] Co-produced by the group, Mark Neill, and Danger Mouse, it was released on May 18, 2010 on Nonesuch Records. Brothers was the band's commercial breakthrough, as it sold over 73,000 copies in the United States in its first week and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, their best performance on the chart to that point.^[2] The album's lead single, "Tighten Up", the only track from the album produced by Danger Mouse, became their most successful single to that point, spending 10 weeks at number one on the Alternative Songs chart and becoming the group's first single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 87 and was later certified gold. The second single Howlin' for You went gold as well.^[3] In April 2012, the album was certified platinum in the US by the RIAA for shipping over one million copies.^[4] It also went double-platinum in Canada and gold in the UK.^[5] In 2011, it won three Grammy Awards, including honors for Best Alternative Music Album.^[6]

Background [edit]

In 2009, the band was experiencing conflict after vocalist Dan Auerbach released his solo album Keep It Hid. Auerbach explained that at that point it was hard to communicate to his bandmate, drummer Patrick Carney because of Carney's relationship with his wife. They went months without talking to each other. In the meantime, Carney worked on his own collaboration, Drummer and released the album Feel Good Together. In July 2009, Carney broke it off with his wife over the telephone while she was in Europe. After a few months passed, Carney and Auerbach talked and realized how important the band was to each other. Soon afterward, they reconvened in Alabama to work on Brothers, recording at the Muscle Shoals Odyssey Studio. There, they recorded 16 songs in 10 days.^[7] The album was co-produced by the band with Mark Neill, except for the single "Tighten Up", which was produced by Danger Mouse. The album name pays tribute to Auerbach's and Carney's years of friendship. Auerbach explained, "We love each other, we get on each other's nerves, we piss each other off. But like brothers, we know it's all OK."^[8]

Promotion [edit]

The album's first single was "Tighten Up", which became The Black Keys' most successful single to that point, being the group's first song to chart on and reach number one on the Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts.^[9] Mark C. Horn of Buzzbin Magazine described the song: "The song intros with the distinct whistling from Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly composition, backed up by Carney's monster thump drumming and Auerbach's soulful vocal offerings. Famed producer Danger Mouse, who produced Attack and Release, produced the song, which was recorded at Brooklyn's Bunker Studios."^[10]

As the label asked director Chris Marrs Piliero to do a placeholder video for "Tighten Up" as a teaser for the album, he made a low-budget video for the song, released in April 2010, with The Black Keys alongside a dinosaur puppet named Frank. Later that month, another Piliero teaser video was released, with Frank singing "Next Girl" alongside bikini-clad models.^[11] The official "Tighten Up" video, directed by Piliero, was released on May 18, 2010.^[12][13]

An official video for the song "Howlin' for You" was released on February 10, 2011.^[14] Directed by Chris Marrs Piliero,^[15] the video parodied action movie trailers and starred Tricia Helfer, Diora Baird, Sean Patrick Flanery, Christian Serratos, Corbin Bernsen, Todd Bridges, and Shaun White.^[16][17] It was nominated for the 2011 MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video.^[18]

The band appeared as the musical guest on the American sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live on January 8, 2011, performing "Howlin for You" and "Tighten Up".^[19]

Packaging [edit]

The Black Keys performing in 2011

The album was designed by Michael Carney, the brother of drummer Patrick Carney. In 2011, Michael won the Grammy Award for Best Album Package.^[20] The packaging is designed to resemble a vinyl record jacket, with the old Nonesuch logo on the front cover in the lower left, and the words "STEREO SOUND" in the upper right. The album was released as a 12-inch double LP. The album is littered with messages that identify everything, such as the front saying, "This is an album by The Black Keys. The name of this album is Brothers". This was to pay homage to the front cover design of Howlin' Wolf's 1969 album, The Howlin' Wolf Album, which reads, "This is Howlin' Wolf's new album..." Auerbach and Carney have both stated repeatedly that along with Junior Kimbrough, Howlin' Wolf was one of their greatest influences^{[citation needed]}.

When first opened, the label on the disc is almost entirely black. However, the label is heat-sensitive and turns white when played in a disc player for a long enough time. The label can also be revealed by touching the disc. On finding the heat-sensitive ink Carney told the Los Angeles Times, "Before we started the design, I talked to the people [at the label] and said I'd heard of this ink. Literally, every ink supplier was contacted. People are really open to making new packaging."^[20] On Australian copies of the album, the disc is white with black text by default.

Included in the album sleeve is a poster with the lyrics on the back.

The font used, Cooper Black, has been used by other bands, including The Doors on L.A. Woman, In It for the Money by Supergrass, both of The Fratellis albums, Tyler, The Creator's Goblin and the cover of Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.

Reception [edit]

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	82/100[21]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[22]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[23]
The Guardian	[24]
Houston Chronicle	[25]
NME	8/10[26]
Pitchfork Media	7.7/10[27]
Q	[28]
Rolling Stone	[29]
The Sunday Times	[30]
Uncut	[31]

The album has garnered critical acclaim. According to review aggregator website Metacritic, the album has an average critic review score of 82/100.^[21] Rolling Stone magazine placed the album at No. 2 on the Best Albums of 2010^[32] and "Everlasting Light" at No. 11 on the Best Singles of 2010.^[33] The album was also featured on Spin's Top 40 Albums of 2010^[34] and Paste magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2010.^[35] Time magazine ranked it number seven on its list of 2010's Top 10 Albums.^[36]

The album was nominated for five 2011 Grammy Awards^[37] the biggest win being Best Alternative Music Album. The single "Tighten Up" won the award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and was nominated for Best Rock Song. "Black Mud" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.^[6] The fifth nomination was for Grammy Award for Best Recording Package,^[6] which Michael Carney won for designing the album artwork.

Track listing [edit]

All songs written and composed by Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, except where noted. 

Bonus Tracks [edit]

Personnel [edit]

The Black Keys

• Dan Auerbach - guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, organ, clavinet, harpsichord, bells, production, engineer
• Patrick Carney – drums, percussion, production

Additional performers

• Nicole Wray – backing vocals on "Everlasting Light", "Sinister Kid", "Howlin' For You", "Next Girl"

Production

• Danger Mouse – production on "Tighten Up"
• Kennie Takahashi – engineer on "Tighten Up"
• Mark Neill – production, engineer

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website
• News about album at Pitchfork