The Black Keys “No Rain No Flowers” releases tomorrow, August 8th, 2025. Limited edition blue vinyl, so fresh that I left the shrink wrap on after grabbing it from our mailbox about an hour ago. So new that most of the tracks aren’t available to stream yet on Spotify or YouTube. This is clearly my first listen so my written observations are happening in real time. It’s way more slick-indie and shimmery, less rocking and raw than their earlier material – this is their 13th studio LP. According to a review from another pre-release source, The Black Keys employed songwriters for this album, including “Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves) [who] helps to buff up the grimy rock of ‘The Night Before,’ Rick Nowels (Lana Del Rey) [who] adds a coat of radio gloss to the dreamy title track [‘No Rain No Flowers‘] and The Roots/ Dr. Dre keyboard player [and hip hop producer] Scott Storch [who] colours ‘Babygirl‘ with tasteful piano and organ.” There’s some 80’s style blue-eyed soul flavoring (think Joe Jackson, Hall & Oates, etc.) sprinkled throughout the smooth pop like on “Make You Mine;” it’s a great song but if I heard it in the wild there are zero chances I would have guessed it was the Keys. As another reviewer from Pitchfork notes, songs like ‘On Repeat‘ and ‘Kiss It’ float along to hooks that feel excavated from the golden age of AM radio.” And on “All My Life” they kinda go straight-up disco (it’s fun!). My top track is the buzzy, fuzzy, NOT poppy dark-edged ass-shaking “Man on a Mission” which does sound like band. I also like the jangle rocker “A Little Too High” and the aforementioned “The Night Before.” Overall: I certainly don’t mind bands changing, evolving, especially ones that have been around as long as The Black Keys have, but I’m not sure about the general direction this record is taking them in.