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Mike Tyson, creepy visuals, high jinx and the blues - yup, The Black Keys are back and the world of rock is heading into a frenzy of anticipation for their upcoming eighth album, Turn Blue. But what do we want to see from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney in 2014?
The blues-rock duo have come a long way from the sweatbox rock and roll antics of their early years to the Grammy-winning, stadium tour-de-force that we know them as today - but 2014 is already being tipped as the year of The Black Keys. How are they going to do it?
Well, pull off these seven things with Turn Blue, and they can't go far wrong...
1. Weirdness
If this 'trailer' for Turn Blue is anything to go by (revealed by boxer Mike Tyson no less), then the album is going to be a dark, haunting, twisted and Lynchian affair. Sounds good to us.
2. A collaboration with Lana Del Rey
Earlier this year, Del Rey posted a picture of herself draped across Black Keys' frontman Dan Auerbach - with the suggestion that the part-time producer had been working on her upcoming second album, Ultraviolence. That's cool, but what would be really awesome would be if she returned the favour contributed her sultry pop noir vocals to a a track or two on Turn Blue. Seriously, wouldn't that be something?
Me and Dan Auerbach are excited to present you Ultraviolence pic.twitter.com/aRAZYscwYd
— Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) February 20, 2014
3. More amazing music videos
Who ever said that the blues had to be stonefaced and dull? Not these dudes - Dan and Patrick are no strangers to a brilliant tongue-in-cheek music video. The dancing video for 'Lonely Boy' became an instant classic, 'Tighten Up' made us never want to have kids, 'Your Touch' taught us the difficulty of being ghosts and 'Howlin' For You' was the trashy Tarantino blockbuster that never was. Here's hoping that Turn Blue brings us more audio-visual treats from true masters of the artform.
4. Filthy blues
The bigger the band get, the more scope and size their sound has - which is amazing, but we can't help but pine for a little more of that fast and furious filthy blues from their earlier material. It would be pretty sweet to hear a bit more of that creep back into their arena-filling anthemics.
5. Festival headline status
The band have been announced to headline Latitude Festival 2014, which (unbelievably) is their first ever headline slot at a major UK festival. Anyone who caught them on the main stage just before Foo Fighters at Reading and Leeds back in 2011 or at any of their arena shows can vouch that they're worthy of much, much more. May this record catapult them to the top of the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
6. That Monkeys' magic
Arctic Monkeys supported The Black Keys out in the US towards the tail end of their Suck It And See tour, with the impact and influence of Dan and Patrick being clear in abundance when Alex and Turner and co returned with AM. It turned Arctic Monkeys from a UK indie sensation into globe-conquering rock gods. We predict that if Turn Blue achieves at least half of what it's expected to, then we'll find the Black Keys nestling comfortably on the top of the throne with Arctic Monkeys, Queens Of The Stone Age and more as modern rock royalty.
7. Proving Jack White wrong
We do love you Jack White, but we going to have to disagree with you when it comes to The Black Keys. According to court documents from the White Stripes frontman's divorce case, he slammed Auerbach as an "asshole" with "free reign to follow me around and copy me and push himself into my world."
Besides their love of a solid riff and a penchant for operating in a duo, we can't really see any similarity between their work. It's time for The Black Keys to step up and prove to the world and exist on their own terms. Could Turn Blue be their definitive album?
Listen to The Black Keys' new single 'Fever' below
