The Black Keys have unveiled their scorching, psychedelic new song “Lo/Hi.” It’s the duo’s – Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney – first new music since their 2014 album, Turn Blue.
Written and produced by Auerbach and Carney, they recorded the single at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, Tennessee. “Lo/Hi” finds the duo in a classic blues-rock mode, with Auerbach moaning over a distorted riff and his bandmate’s crunching drum track. “Nobody to love you, nobody to care,” he sings. “Nobody to drug you, no one to hold back your hair.” Later, the track peaks with a blistering guitar solo.
Though this is Auerbach and Carney’s first new Black Keys material in five years, separately they have been working on a number of projects. Auerbach launched Easy Eye Sound record label, named after his recording studio, in 2017. The label will release Leo “Bud” Welch’s posthumous LP, The Angels in Heaven Done Signed My Name, this Friday. Recently, Auerbach produced Dee White’s debut album, Southern Gentleman, which as well as Yola’s debut LP, Walk Through the Fire. Auerbach also co-wrote recent tunes with Tim O’Brien (“Amazing Love“) and Cactus Blossoms (“Got a Lotta Love“). Auerbach’s second solo album, Waiting On a Song, was released in 2017.
In the interim between Black Keys material, Carney has also produced and recorded new music with a variety of artists including co-writing and producing Calvin Johnson’s A Wonderful Beast, which was released in 2018, and producing his partner Michelle Branch’s 2017 LP, Hopeless Romantic. Carney also penned the theme music for Netflix’s BoJack Horseman with his late uncle, Ralph Carney.