Rolling Stone India – July 2019

Music

TAKING ROCK

BACK TO

THE FUTURE

The Raconteurs

and the Black Keys

affirm the undying

power of garage-

band thunder

By DAVID FRICKE

I

f rock is dead, that memo

did not reach Nashville, where

these albums were recorded.

And Detroit — the Raconteurs’

real home, where singer-guitarists

Jack White and Brendan Benson

each grew up in the local ga-

rage-punk ruckus — has always

ignored that message. “I’ve been

riding this thing out since I was

eight years old,” Benson sings on

Help Us Stranger, in “Somedays

(I Don’t Feel Like Trying),” which

starts in Seventies-arena-ballad

distress but jumps to a thumping,

electric vengeance as he and White

crow “I’m here right now/I’m not

dead yet” like a super-caffeinated

Queen.

The Black Keys, in turn, affirm

their continuing mission in the

title of their first album in five

years. Singer-guitarist Dan Auer-

bach and drummer Patrick Carney

bring a heightened purism too,

emphasizing the power-duo force

of their early records amid the

ILLUSTRATION BY

Jim Feindt

The Black

Keys

“LET’S ROCK”

★★★★

The Racon-

teurs

HELP US

STRANGER

★★★★