The Black Keys‘ have shared their new single ‘Babygirl’. Check it out below.
- READ MORE: The Black Keys talk returning to the UK and their “epic” ‘Ohio Players’ album
It follows previously released single ‘The Night Before’ as the second taste of the Ohio duo’s 13th studio album ‘No Rain, No Flowers’, which is due for release later this year via Easy Eye Sound/Warner.
Built around a groovy piano riff, the track is a euphoric love song that captures the band’s signature sound. They co-wrote it with Grammy-award-winning songwriter Daniel Tashian and Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Scott Storch.
The band says of the track: “We’d been obsessing over Scott’s prolific output of material online and his overall body of work for years. Getting together with him in the studio and watching him get his hands on our collection of vintage keyboards was awe inspiring. He’s one of the greats.”
Check it out below.
The forthcoming ‘No Rain, No Flowers’ will follow on from the group’s 2024 album, ‘Ohio Players’, and is described as “an especially personal project for The Black Keys”. This comes after the duo were forced to cancel their 2024 North American tour after “an emotional dispute with their former management company”.
A description reads: “Now, with a fresh outlook, the duo have hit reset and crafted their most ambitious and adventurous album yet, braiding together the pair’s sprawling, eclectic musical influences.”
The 2025 tour in question will feature three outdoor UK shows this summer, at Millennium Square in Leeds, Castlefield Bowl in Manchester, and Alexandra Palace Park in London. The group will also take to the stage in Europe, and play headline gigs across the US.
For the UK dates, support will come from Miles Kane. You can find any remaining tickets here (UK) and here (US).
In a three-star review of The Black Keys’ ‘Ohio Players’, NME nodded to its guest collaborators, including Noel Gallagher, Beck and Juicy J: “Playing music with your pals isn’t a radical act – it’s what most musicians do and the bedrock of any scene in any city the world over – so given the fanfare the listener might reasonably expect ‘Ohio Players’ to hum along on the star-wattage of its guest list.
“Instead, this is a pretty good Black Keys record that chiefly serves to underline how wedded they are to the fundamentals of their own process.”
Patrick Carney talked to NME in 2023 and recalled The Black Keys’ time working with the “incredible” Gallagher in the studio. “He’s hilarious and super talented,” he said. “We were referring to him as ‘The Chord Lord’ because he’s just a perfectionist with it.”
In other news, the duo have blamed their management for the cancellation of their 2024 tour, while defending their decision to play a Crypto gig.
