Just hours after making waves as producer on Lana Del Rey’s new single “West Coast,” Dan Auerbach, this time with bandmate Patrick Carney, steals some more of today’s spotlight with “Turn Blue,” the title track from The Black Keys’ new album out next month. Following up on the album’s moody, psychedelic first single “Fever,” the duo adopts a more melancholy tone with “Turn Blue.”
“In the dead of the night, I start to lose control,” Auerbach wails in the song’s opening line, in a languid tone that suggests a nightlong bender. Over a slow-burning bassline, he goes on to suggest a volatile force consuming his life—“I really don’t think you know, there could be Hell below,” he sings—in his pristine falsetto. With competing releases in the works from acts like Jack White, Damon Albarn, and Coldplay, there looks to be a rock-dominated summer on the horizon, and The Black Keys are leading the way.
