Dan Aurbach's appeal was coming at guitars rough and hard, the second coming of The White Stripes - but he's struggled to grow. Brothers aside, it's been a descent into polish with no return.
His latest project goes all psychedelic, and the blankety production's a good trick, but it doesn't carry the underwhelming songs. There's not a memorable hook among them, and all the grit and bite's buried under that faux retro sound.
Don't get me wrong, the sound's the star, the production deliciously over-under-produced, it's just at odds with the measured songwriting. It'd have worked better without Aurbach's distinctive voice, which is too strong and too sure, when what these songs needed was a little wheels-coming-off desperation. It ends up like an Ocean's movie - sounding too polished, too removed - more fun to make than to listen to 3/5
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