El Camino
by The Black Keys
This album has been added to 2 private lists and 13 public lists:
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On Vinyl
Greg- Root Genre: Rock
- Primary Branch: Garage Rock / Blues Rock
- Secondary Influences: Soul / R&B, Glam Rock, Punk Blues, Indie Rock
- Textural Identity: Raw but polished — distorted guitar riffs, punchy drums, fuzzed bass, handclaps and retro-soul production sharpened into concise, radio-ready hooks
- Energy Axis: Medium → High (fast, riff-heavy and consistently propulsive, with very little downtime)
El Camino is firmly Rock, with Garage Rock / Blues Rock as the clearest branch. AllMusic places it around garage punk, punk blues and alternative rock, while Pitchfork describes the band’s core sound as garage-blues and emphasizes how this album adds a stronger glam-rock swagger and pop immediacy. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=“0”}
Compared with earlier Black Keys albums, this one is less raw blues revival and more highly compressed rock songwriting. Danger Mouse’s production tightens everything: riffs arrive quickly, choruses hit hard, and the soul influence from Brothers remains present without slowing the record down. AllMusic specifically notes that the album pushes further into retro-soul, while tracks like “Gold on the Ceiling” add an almost glam-rock stomp. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=“1”}
Small review: El Camino is probably the Black Keys at their most efficient. “Lonely Boy” is almost ridiculously immediate, “Gold on the Ceiling” turns a blues riff into arena-sized glam rock, and “Little Black Submarines” is the standout because it starts as an acoustic lament before exploding into one of the album’s heaviest guitar moments. There is very little subtlety here, but that is part of the appeal: it is garage-blues stripped down, polished up and engineered for maximum momentum.
Collection shorthand: Rock → Garage Rock / Blues Rock.
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Favorite 50 Albums of the Quarter Century
Stu(2011)
"This empty heart, you left me with
The ribbon on my parting gift
I'm falling hard for every yard
of the dream you sold me..."This album was even more rocking and more fun than their 2010 breakthrough Brothers, and they've continued to crank out albums with catchy songs year after year since then.
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2025
PL⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hyvää rytmikästä blues-rockia tai mitä lie. Hyviä biisejä mm. Little black submarines, Run right back, Stop Stop ja Nova Baby
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My top (Almost 100) Albums of all time.
GwydianThe blues were revived with this one. The Black Keys is just two white middle aged men but don't be fooled by there lack lustre description they have struck gold on this album many times over. With just some guitar, drums and singing these two have made magic. The rough un-processed feeling on a lot of these songs is part of the reason they keep drawing me back in; the other part of that reason is how catchy they are and how much they'll get stuck in your head.
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