Album Review
The long-running duo go back to the blues for new inspiration on Peaches!
The past couple of Black Keys records have seen the Akron, Ohio, arena-garage blues-rock duo stretch out of their comfort zone a little. Their 2024 Ohio Players brought on collaborators like Beck, Dan the Automator, and Noel Gallagher. Last year’s No Rain, No Flowers saw them work with A-list pop technicians such as Lana Del Rey producer Rick Nowels and hip-hop/R&B vet Scott Storch. But singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s 14th album leans into their back-to-basics side with a collection of tunes by other artists, inspired by these lifelong friends’ shared journey as deep record nerds.
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A decent hunk of Peaches! finds them interpreting the north Mississippi blues that’s always been a key element of their sound, much like their similarly titled 2019 covers record, Delta Kream. The Keys sink into tunes by RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Jessie Mae Hemphill, with second guitarist Kenny Brown and multi-instrumentalist Jimbo Mathus adding depth and shape. These versions often aren’t particularly explosive or even all that grabby. In some ways they’re kind of insular, exuding a pickup-hoops naturalism that adds to the music’s deep grind or brackish crunch. Press materials that accompany the album note that Auerbach’s father was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2025 and is being cared for in Auerbach’s Nashville home. It’s hard not to hear a band-of-brothers perseverance in this LP, the sound of two dudes with arms around shoulders while they look off in the same direction.
The Keys don’t spend the whole album in the Delta. The rockingest moment is a rip through Ike Turner’s Chicago-blues scorcher “You Got to Lose,” based on George Thorogood’s studly 1977 version. Peaches! was recorded with raw one-take urgency, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t lovingly burnished; their reimagining of Willie Griffin’s crate-digger gem “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire” turns a spooky shimmy into something with the haunted intensity of Bob Dylan’s 2000s roots conjurings. Even when the Keys are just hanging out, they make an echoing noise.
