The Black Keys Announce New LP, Ft Noel Gallagher, Beck
The Black Keys have announced their new album, Ohio Players, to be released on 5 April on Nonesuch and featuring collaborations with Noel Gallagher and Beck. The band have also shared the lead single Beautiful People (Stay High), written with help from Dan ‘The Automator’ Nakamura and Beck, listen below.
Ohio Players is available to pre-order now on limited smokey coloured vinyl, CD and cassette.
pre-order The Black Keys’ ‘Ohio Players’ here
“We had this epiphany: ‘We can call our friends to help us make music,’” drummer Patrick Carney says of Ohio Players, the title of which nods to the duo’s Akron, Ohio roots. “It’s funny because we both write songs with other people – Dan all the time [as a solo artist and producer], me when I’m producing a record. That’s what we do.”
“No matter who we work with, it never feels like we’re sacrificing who we are,” singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach adds. “It only feels like it adds some special flavor. We just expanded that palette with people we wanted to work with. We were there to support them and their ideas, to do whatever we could to see that moment flourish. But when it came time to finish the album, it was just Pat and me. We’d never worked harder to make a record. It’s never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.”
Meanwhile, a new documentary about the band will be given its world premiere at the 2024 edition of SXSW festival. Titled This Is a Film About the Black Keys, the film traces Auerbach and Carney’s journey from basement jams in Ohio to rock’n’roll superstardom. It was directed by Jeff Dupre, who is best known for his 2012 film Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present.