The Black Keys Share “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire,” Second Single from ‘Peaches!’
The Black Keys, photo by Romeo Okwara
The Black Keys have released “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire,” the second advance single from Peaches! Due on May 1 via Easy Eye Sound, the 14th studio album from the garage-rock duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney is heralded as their “most natural record” since their 2002 debut, owing to its roots in the same raw expression of their early days.
Turning from the unrepentantly scuzzy electric blues exorcism of the lead single “You Got to Lose,” the second taste of Peaches! shows how the rough-and-ready recording process brought a different sort of power to more emotive numbers. “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire” opens the album with a low-down longing, flame-licked by the same blissfully cacophonous fuzz they let rage in Auerbach’s Nashville studio. Auerbach’s jagged riffs and Carney’s pummeling swing drill for new depth in Willie Griffin’s troubled soul-funk rarity, reflecting the duo’s passion for cratedigging and how their vinyl archeology has enriched their sound.
“I’d look for 45s specifically to play at the record hangs,” Auerbach says, “but sometimes I’d find a song and think, ‘This might be fun for Pat and me to play live.’”
Peaches! erupted from a moment of desperate, unrestricted creativity as the duo worked through the grief of Auerbach’s father’s health issues. Lit up by the same fiery passion that charged 2002’s The Big Come Up, they crashed back into old habits and recorded their eclectic 10-track set with no isolation and few overdubs. All the musicians piled into the booth and let their sounds boom together in a unified echo, which Auerbach and Carney mixed on their own for the first time since 2006’s Magic Potion. “Everything was all cut live in one with no separation, including vocals,” Carney says. “It was a nightmare to mix but we got it sounding raw and filthy.”
“Shitty is pretty,” Auerbach agrees.
Peaches! is available to pre-order and pre-save now. Watch the music video for “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire,” captured during an intimate surprise show at Lucinda’s in New York City, below, and read on for the album’s full tracklist.
Peaches! – The Black Keys:
1. Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire
2. Stop Arguing Over Me
3. Who’s Been Foolin’ You
4. It’s a Dream
5. Tomorrow Night
6. You Got To Lose
7. Tell Me You Love Me
8. She Does It Right
9. Fireman Ring the Bell
10. Nobody But You Baby
