The Black Keys Dropout Boogie (LP)

(Nonesuch Records) 10 tracks

After 10 albums, the last five of which have ranked in the Top 10 or better, six Grammy awards and sold-out tours around the world, The Black Keys are back.The duo, named America's Most Trusted Band by Stephen Colbert and one of the best rock 'n' roll bands on the planet by Uncut, will release their eleventh studio album, Dropout Boogie, on May 13. Dropout Boogie features collaborations with Billy F. Gibbons (ZZ Top), Greg Cartwright (Reigning Sound), and Angelo Petraglia (Kings of Leon).

Dropout Boogie comes one day before the twentieth anniversary of The Black Keys' first album, The Big Come Up. As they have throughout their career, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney wrote all of the material in the studio, and the new album features a number of first takes that recall the stripped-down blues rock of their early days making music together in the basements of Akron, Ohio.

"That's always been the beauty of what Pat and I do. It's instant," Auerbach says. "We never really had to work at it. Whenever we got together, we just made music, you know? We didn't know what we were going to do, but we just did it and it sounded cool. That's the natural chemistry that Pat and I have. The fact that we've been in a band for so long is a testament to that. It was a real gift that was given to us. I mean, the likelihood of living a block and a half from each other in Akron, Ohio, just seems crazy."

After fleshing out initial ideas as a duo at Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, Auerbach and Carney welcomed new collaborators Billy F. Gibbons, Greg Cartwright and Angelo Petraglia to the Dropout Boogie sessions. Although the Black Keys have co-written songs with Danger Mouse before, this is the first time they have invited several new contributors to work simultaneously on one of their own albums. Both Cartwright and Petraglia are featured on the new album's first single, Wild Child.

The Black Keys had previously jammed with ZZ Top guitar legend Billy F. Gibbons in Los Angeles more than a decade ago, while ZZ Top was working on an album with producer Rick Rubin. "We never really wrote a song - we just had some ideas that we wrote down," Carney said. "We really just wanted to hang out with him. We kept in touch, and Dan invited him into the studio when we started working on this album."