The Black Keys reconnect with the blues songs that informed their early years on the duo’s 10th studio album Delta Kream.
Recorded in Nashville at the studio of Black Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach, the record finds Auerbach and Keys drummer Patrick Carney paying homage to bluesmen like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Fred McDowell over 11 songs. Delta Kream, the follow-up to the Black Keys’ 2019 album Let’s Rock, will be released May 14th on Nonesuch Records.
The band preview the upcoming project with the single “Crawling Kingsnake,” an ominous, swaggering slice of Hill Country blues recorded by John Lee Hooker; Auerbach was first introduced to it via later Kimbrough rendition.
“This is basically folk music on a certain level, and a lot of this music is like hand-me-downs from generation to generation,” Auerbach told Rolling Stone during an interview for an upcoming story. “I’m singing lyrics that are like third-generation wrong lyrics. I’m singing a certain version that Junior recorded where maybe he messed up a line, but that’s the only one I know. So we were really just kind of flying by the seat of our pants.”
Guitarist Kenny Brown and bassist Eric Deaton, the former sidemen of Burnside and Kimbrough, respectively, join Auerbach and Carney on Delta Kream. Percussionist Sam Bacco and organ player Ray Jacildo also appear.
Along with tracks like “Crawling Kingsnake” and “Going Down South,” Delta Kream features a new recording of “Do the Romp,” which the Black Keys first recorded (as “Do the Rump”) for their 2002 debut, The Big Come-Up.
1. “Crawling Kingsnake” (John Lee Hooker / Bernard Besman)
2. “Louise” (Fred McDowell)
3. “Poor Boy a Long Way From Home” (Robert Lee Burnside)
4. “Stay All Night” (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
5. “Going Down South” (Robert Lee Burnside)
6. “Coal Black Mattie” (Ranie Burnette)
7. “Do the Romp” (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
8. “Sad Days, Lonely Nights” (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
9. “Walk with Me” (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
10. “Mellow Peaches” (Joseph Lee Williams)
11. “Come on and Go with Me” (David Kimbrough, Jr.)
ALBUM REVIEWS
Victoria Canal’s debut album feels deeply. ‘Slowly, It Dawns’ sits with the emotions you stumble upon in your mid-20s, as the Spanish-American, London-based artist told NME in her Cover interview. Whether it’s realising “I’m never gonna have everything figured out”, or the so-called “quarter-life crisis”, Canal’s impressive (and Ivor Novello Award-winning) songwriting looks to her past to reflect on the realities of life: the idea that multiple things can be true at once.
Take the sweet, sharp indie-pop of ‘June Baby’, co-written with The 1975’s Ross MacDonald. Depicting the dizzy rollercoaster of summer romance, Canal candidly draws upon contrary emotions, reflecting on heart-racing early interactions (“Trying my best to/Savour your compliments”) and blurry confusion (“You saw me naked/Totally freaking out”). The brutally self-aware ‘Talk’, meanwhile, reflects on the fizzing honeymoon phase of early relationships when you ignore the red flags you feel in your gut (“Hold your gaze/Hoping that it doesn’t break”). It’s set over soft-rock instrumentals that recall alt-pop heroes like Beabadoobee or Clairo.
On early EPs, 2022’s ‘Elegy’ and 2023’s ‘WELL WELL’, Canal spun stories over lilting piano and stripped-back instrumentals. Sonically, ‘Slowly, It Dawns’ builds upon this existing world: the sweltering ‘Cake’, which depicts late-night debauchery (“Fuck the cake!/Let’s go straight to the vodka”) is filled with sticky basslines and woozy layered vocals, its second verse dusted in UKG beats. ‘California Sober’ is a sultry cut built around salsa rhythms and pulsing synths, while ‘15%’ could have been pulled straight from a noughties romcom with its swooning production, its harmonious melodies and instrumental arrangement evoking KT Tunstall.
There are moments of subdued beauty throughout. The record finishes with the one-two punch of ‘Black Swan’ and its sibling track ‘Swan Song’. The two tracks showcase the power in Canal’s songwriting; the former won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically last year, while the latter is a powerful musing on the fragility of life and forgiveness.
‘Swan Song’ concludes with the poignant question: “Who knows how long we’ve got?/As long as I am breathing, I know it’s not too late to love.” It’s both full of grief and hope, the two knotty emotions filling each other’s gaps in a moving exploration of loss. This duality is a powerful tool in ‘Slowly, It Dawns’: it’s compelling and moving songwriting that manages to depict all of life’s complexities, Canal spinning raw emotion into beautifully crafted songs.
