Thickfreakness

Thickfreakness
Studio album by The Black Keys
Released	April 8, 2003
Recorded	December 2002 at Studio 45 in Akron, OH
Genre	Garage rock, blues rock
Length	39:01
Label	Fat Possum
Producer	Patrick Carney
The Black Keys chronology
The Big Come Up (2002) Thickfreakness (2003) Rubber Factory (2004)
Singles from Thickfreakness
"Set You Free" Released: 2002 "Hard Row" Released: 2003 "Have Love Will Travel" Released: 2003

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Mojo	[3]
Pitchfork Media	7.7/10[4]
Q	[5]
Rolling Stone	[6]
Spin	C+[7]

Thickfreakness is the second studio album by American rock duo The Black Keys, released in 2003. It is their debut release for the Fat Possum record label.

Background

The band's debut album The Big Come Up had been tremendously successful for an independent rock band and Thickfreakness further increased their profile. It continues The Black Keys' tradition of raw, heavy blues-influenced garage rock.

Songs such as "Set You Free" won the pair some mainstream success as being featured in the soundtrack of the 2003 film School of Rock. Heavy comparisons to another American blues-influenced garage rock duo, The White Stripes, were often made by the music media.^[8]

Recording

Most of the album was recorded in December 2002 during a single 14-hour session in Patrick Carney's basement using an early 1980s Tascam 388 8-track recorder. This approach was necessary because the group spent its small advance payment from Fat Possum Records on rent.^{[9][10][11][12]} The liner notes claim this is Carney's "patented recording technique called 'medium fidelity'". The result is an older sounding sound.^[13] The song "Midnight in Her Eyes" is one of the few Black Keys songs that used a bass guitar; Dan Auerbach dubbed a bassline by playing a Guild SG-style bass through a guitar amp into the song. Part of "Set You Free" was recorded by Jeff Saltzman.

The album included two covers: "Have Love, Will Travel" by Richard Berry and "Everywhere I Go" by north Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough.

Reception

Thickfreakness was The Black Key's first breakthrough album, it established them as an indie-rock blues band.^[14] Their recognition from Thickfreakness led them on a rigorous tour schedule including opening for singer/songwriter Beck [on his "Sea Change" summer tour] in the summer of 2003.^[15] This genre of music was already gaining in popularity [see The White Stripes] but their particular style was something never heard before. According to critics, "Thickfreakness is an album that's meant to be felt as much as heard, rigged with plunging riffs, Auerbach's charcoal-smoke singing voice, and rhythmic pockets as deep as quicksand".^[16] It was during this time that Auerbach began writing material for their next album. When the two returned from touring, Auerbach's landlord had sold his house where the duo wrote Thickfreakness in the basement. They found an abandoned tire factory in their hometown of Akron which was where they wrote their next album "Rubber Factory" named after the factory in which the album was conceived. The duo had to postpone a tour in Europe that summer due to exhaustion. The album placed in the top ten spot in the final ten albums for the Shortlist Prize in the summer of 2003.^[17]

Track listing

All tracks written by Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney except where noted.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Thickfreakness"	3:48
2.	"Hard Row" (lyrics by Dan and Chuck Auerbach)	3:15
3.	"Set You Free"	2:46
4.	"Midnight in Her Eyes"	4:02
5.	"Have Love Will Travel" (Richard Berry)	3:04
6.	"Hurt Like Mine"	3:27
7.	"Everywhere I Go" (Junior Kimbrough)	5:40
8.	"No Trust"	3:37
9.	"If You See Me"	2:52
10.	"Hold Me in Your Arms"	3:19
11.	"I Cry Alone"	2:47

Japanese bonus track
No.	Title	Length
12.	"Evil"	2:27

Personnel

• Dan Auerbach - guitar, vocals, bass
• Patrick Carney - drums, percussion, production

References

1. "Reviews for thickfreakness by The Black Keys". Metacritic. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
2. Deming, Mark. "Thickfreakness – The Black Keys". AllMusic. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
3. "The Black Keys: Thickfreakness". Mojo (115): 93. June 2003.
4. Carr, Eric (April 22, 2003). "The Black Keys: Thickfreakness". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
5. "The Black Keys: Thickfreakness". Q (203): 94. June 2003.
6. Caramanica, Jon (April 17, 2003). "Black Keys: Thickfreakness". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
7. Harvilla, Rob (June 2003). "The Black Keys: Thickfreakness / The Gossip: Movement". Spin. 19 (6): 105. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
8. Carr, Eric. "The Black Keys: Thickfreakness". Pitchfork.
9. Lynskey, Dorian (September 2010). "Blues Explosion!". Spin. 26 (8): 60–63. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
10. Katz, Larry (October 7, 2003). "Into the Black; Keys unlock a raw, bluesy sound". Boston Herald. Herald Media Inc. sec. The Edge, p. 47.
11. Thickfreakness (CD booklet). The Black Keys. Fat Possum Records. 2003.
12. Inman, Davis (2010-07-21). "On record: The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach". American Songwriter. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
13. Tranter, Rhys (2003-06-17). "The Black Keys — Thickfreakness". Collective. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
14. Dansby, Andrew. ""Black Keys Open "Factory""". Rollingstone. Rollingstone. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
15. Hunter, James. "The Black Keys: Hardly Retreads; on 'Rubber Factory' the Indie Rockers Get High Out of Steel-Belted Blues". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
16. Perry, Jonathan (2003-05-16). "BLUES CRUSH THE BLACK KEYS CREATE GRITTY, BLUESY ROCK THAT SOUNDS AS IF IT ROLLS DOWN FROM THE HILLS BUT ACTUALLY COMES RIGHT FROM THE SUBURBS BLACK KEYS GET DOWN AND DIRTY WITH THE BLUES". Boston Globe.
17. Dansby, Andrew. "Black Keys Open "Factory". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2015-07-07.