Let us first salute the gesture: on this 12e album of his career, the American blues-rock duo The Black Keys felt the need to question themselves, if only by revisiting their pop loves of the 1990s. Thus, Beck collaborates on half of the fourteen songs . It’s a lot, especially since, on each of them, we have the feeling that Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are trying to reproduce Mellow Gold (1994) by dipping the blues song into modern production and groovyhere embellished with references to good old Southern soul-funk — the duo also covers I Forgot to Be Your Lover by William Bell and Booker T. Jones. In the first half of the album, the good choruses follow one another, but the Black Keys do not manage to rise above the stupid stylistic exercise, as pleasant as it is. Old fans will have to mourn the dry blues rock that the group once championed. So, Ohio Players will first appeal to those nostalgic for Beck’s beginnings – and the Britpop wave, since Noel Gallagher (Oasis) collaborates on two songs.
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