I’m on my very first listen to Dropout Boogie but my first impression is that is really great and also very predictable (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – The Black Keys are clearly very good at what they do). The opener and the album’s first single “Wild Child” is a fantastic alt-blues ass shaker that will most definitely be making an appearance on my Wild Thing playlist. “Your Team is Looking Good” is another great rocker and “Burn the Damn Thing Down” is foot-stomping and barn-burning. “For the Love of Money” goes a bit more traditional southern blues, as does “Happiness” and “Didn’t I Love You.” “Baby I’m Coming Home” has a 70’s arena rock vibe, but no complaints from me on that. I’m not wild about hazy, dream-bluesy “How Long” though the guitar jam is quite lovely.

I’m not sure if all copies of Dropout Boogie come with these inserts, but our edition includes a drawn rendition of the cover backed with their summer/early fall tour dates plus a pink slip backed with the liner notes.

*Wiki says the release date is May 13th but the email I just got from The Black Keys give the official release date as today, May 18th.

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While not as lo-fi as their earlier releases, there still is a home-spun, swampy quality to Brothers, mostly due to their recording at the rather dilapidated Muscle Shoals Sound studio, which was in such bad shape that they put their own equipment on top of the studio’s non-functioning console. They also had to deal with some of that equipment dying due to local utility work causing burned out mics and wrecked mixers.

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Anyway, it was a great show, the duo’s sound beefed up by three backing musicians. They played several songs from Let’s Rock including a few of my favorites: the singles “Lo/Hi” (which went to the top of  Billboard’s Mainstream Rock, Adult Alternative Songs, Rock Airplay, and Alternative Songs charts simultaneously, making it the first song ever to do so), “Eagle Birds” and my top-pick, “Go” which is a great summer anthem with a hilarious video. I also really love “Shine a Little Light,” the album’s opener, and “Under the Gun.” I don’t love the whole LP though: “Walk Across the Water,” “Sit Around and Miss You” (though the video is damn funny, a parody of the commercial that aired incessantly in the 80′s for “Freedom Rock”) and “Breaking Down” are all a little too 60′s/70′s smooth California blues-rock for my taste. Though, weirdly, I really like “Tell Me Lies,” which has a similar sound as those last two (kinda Eagles-ish with a dash of Steve Miller Band) but it’s got such a great hook that I’m overlooking it. Honestly it’s taken me awhile to really warm to Let’s Rock: The Raconteurs Help Us Stranger was released about a week before Let’s Rock and there’s that (untrue??) rivalry between Jack White/The White Stripes and Dan Auerbach/The Black Keys that makes comparisons virtually impossible to avoid – and I really really love Help Us Stranger. So when I had the choice of which to listen to on repeat, The Raconteurs inevitably have won out – but I’m making more of an effort now.

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