“Let’s Rock”

Let’s Rock is The Black Keys' ninth studio album. Released on the 28th of June 2019, it comes after a five year hiatus during which both members recovered from extensive touring (from which each has described themselves as suffering from “a form of PTSD”), started families, and collaborated with scores of other artists. Auerbach even started his own record label, Easy Eye Sound, under which Let’s Rock is released.

Let’s Rock is the first album produced solely by the band since their fourth studio album Magic Potion in 2006. The intervening period has consisted of four productions or co-productions with Danger Mouse, beginning with Attack & Release.

The inspiration for the album title and cover originated from a Tennessee newspaper article that the band encountered during the album recording sessions about the state’s first electric-chair execution in 11 years. According to the article, when the convicted murderer Edmund Zagorski was asked before his execution if he had any last words, he simply replied, “Let’s Rock.”

As usual, Auerbach and Carney wrote all the songs in the studio with nothing written beforehand. According to Carney, the pair picked things back up quickly in the studio despite their five year hiatus:

We fell right back into it, really, day one, […] We wrote two songs the first day. We’re just fucking around, and that’s what comes out.