The Black Keys Master Course on Songwriting

Good morning. Today, it’s another ‘Sunday Funday’ blog where we have a quick look at something slightly less serious.

Earlier this month, one of my favourite bands, The Black Keys, released their twelfth studio album, ‘Ohio Players’. I only got my copy this week and have only managed a few listens, so if you’re looking for a review I’d say it’s good, but not groundbreaking. Generally I’m into ‘guitar bands’, so I prefer their slightly older material, which was a bit heavier and bluesier, rather than the slightly more soulful, stax kind of sound most of this album has. It’s still good work, and they still remain a band I’d love to see live. The album does have some interesting collaborations on it though, including Beck and Noel Gallagher, he of Oasis and The High Flying Birds. It’s a very commercial sounding album. It’ll probably do really well in the long run.

One thing that has also always appealed to me about the band is that they obviously don’t always take themselves too seriously, and that’s what I’m going to share with you today.

In 2019 they released an album called ‘Let’s Rock’, for which the band embarked on a series of promo videos, one of which was a master-course video on songwriting and professional musicianship. The fact that the video is only two minutes long can probably tell you how intensive the course is. It’s followed by the video for “Go” which was the third single from the album. Again, a great poke at the apparent pitfalls of rock stardom. Enjoy! And have a good weekend.