The Black Keys - 'Thickfreakness' (Fat Possum) Released 05/05/03

With Jack Daniels in one hand, and a Devil-take-my-soul contract in the other, The Black Keys ooze old school blues straight out of the Midwest: dirty chugging riffs, bulky and bruising rhythms, and visceral field-hollering vocals.

Stripped down and utterly primal, 'Thickfreakness' does exactly what it says on the tin: thick as Mississippi mud grooves clash sublimely with gut-pounding percussion and super-freak asthmatic howling. This isn't something you just listen to; this is something you can physically feel. As is the case with young, white, blues-rock revivalists, the connoisseurs may scoff at their rapscallion appropriation of old-black-man-on-the-porch tunes, but dagnamit! These guys intimate that respect and veneration of the same thing with us, and why shouldn't they when they do it so damn well. Like watching Yosemite Sam strap himself to some TNT - this elbow grease covered disc is absolutely explosive.