Having not entirely jumped on The Black Keys’ bandwagon, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this album. I had heard a lot of great things about The Black Keys, so while I had high hopes for El Camino, I was still sceptical of their sound in general. I can’t say that I loved this album, but I enjoyed their sound. Taking their hit singles from El Camino into consideration, The Black Keys are upbeat and a lot of fun – however, I didn’t find that this album had a ton of character, and for me, El Camino as a whole was a bit of a let down.

Little Black Submarines was my favourite track. Something a little more unexpected in comparison to the rest of the album, this song starts off acoustically and breaks into a much harder rock-style mid-way through. Lyrically, this was the strongest song for me, and the determined instrumental break near the end had a lot of power.

Gold on the Ceiling began what, I felt, was a pretty standard theme for El Camino. The album seemed to be built around this kind of blues-rock rock-and-roll vibe with a lot of back up vocals and electric guitar – don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that sound, but it got somewhat boring by the end of the album.  Lonely Boy (their first single), Nova Baby, Dead and Gone and Run Right Back all followed in this trend, and while this made for a very coherent album, it was nothing special for me. This gave El Camino a distinctly familiar sound that I couldn’t quite place – The White Stripes? Kings of Leon? Wilco? Their sound, while definitely not bad, simply lacked any real interest for me.

Despite the seemingly cookie-cutter trend of El Camino, a few tracks are, regardless, worth mentioning! Sister was a mellow but hard-hitting play on blues-rock with an extremely catchy chorus. The vocals in this track were much coarser than the rest of the album, giving it an edge that I couldn’t find in a lot of the other songs. Likewise, Stop Stop had a different tone as well, though it was upbeat like the rest of the album, it possessed a kind of soul/RnB sound that gave it a lot of swagger. That being said, it was nothing special, lyrics-wise, and again, this song sounded very familiar to me.

Money Maker was the most blues-y of the album, and it had a lot of soul. The chorus was lacking for me and definitely not as soulful as the bridge, but was catchy in its repetitiveness – although, it was very reminiscent of Stop Stop. The insertion of what sounded like slide guitar or harmonica was a nice touch, and made this track stand out from the rest.

Their single and album opener, Lonely Boy, as aforementioned, certainly played to the vibe of the album and set the pace for El Camino as a whole. Extremely catchy with a fast back beat and a very repetitive chorus, Lonely Boy is a fun, dance-able song that delves into the issues of a lonely boy’s sexual frustration. Nothing new here.

As a whole, though El Camino was fun and upbeat, and definitely catchy, it was nothing I hadn’t heard before, and nothing truly memorable. Not a terrible release from The Black Keys, but El Camino was not as interesting as I had hoped.