Two New Albums

I thought I’d pop in to mention two new albums that folks might be interested in both of which I like a great deal.

The first is the Teskey Brother’s second album, just released a few days ago, Run Home Slow. I discovered the Teskey Brothers here at Audiogon when it was mentioned by another member....I forget who. But they are out of Australia. Their music is very much retro R&B. The lead singer sounds a great deal like Otis Redding and the songs on the first album were generally good, classy and soulful R&B. It is one fantastic album. The second album does not disappoint. They have stuck close to their R&B style but several of the songs are a little more funky and one has an almost 1920’s blues/rag feel. I’ve only listened to the album twice and I think it is excellent although I don’t hear one or two really stand out songs with strong hooks the way the first album did. SQ is okay but clearly compressed DR as is everything released these days.

The second album is the Black Keys ’Let’s Rock’. I only recently discovered the Black Keys so I’m coming very late to the game with them, so this album might not be news to anyone but me. I think it came out a few months ago. Not sure how I missed the Black Keys all these years because I’m very much into blues and blues based rock. I understand that this is their first release in 5 years and that their previous album was a bit of a departure from hard edged blues. This recent album is not. It is not a straight blues album by any means but it is full on blues rock for sure. Lots of catchy tunes with hard driving guitar. I really like this album. Sound quality on Amazon Music is poor to say the least. Way over the top with loudness and DR compression. I have not seen actual DR numbers but the band is notorious for releasing CDs and hi-res files with abysmal DR. We’re talking 4-5 range. However, most of their vinyl has reasonably good DR. It will be interesting to see with this one.

For those of you who like blues, give a listen to the Black Keys older stuff like Thickfreakness and the Chulahoma EP. Chulahoma is a collection of Junior Kimbrough’s songs played in Junior’s style. Extremely well done.