The Black Keys released the video for their new single "Fever" today, from their upcoming album Turn Blue. Here are my impressions of the video after watching it just one time.
1. Those shots at the beginning of music videos before the singing starts and the singer has nothing to do are pretty awkward. It wouldn't be so bad if he were playing his guitar.
2. That phone number looks real, since there's no 555 in it. I bet something hilarious happens when you call it. I don't really want to, though.
3. This song's okay. I'm glad the Black Keys keep expanding beyond their lo-fi blues-rock thing, because they probably couldn't have taken that much further. This seems more similar to Brothers than El Camino.
4. Dan Auerbach, you looked much better when you had the scruffy mountain man beard. Do you hate hipsters so much that you had to shave it off when beards became cool? Because you shouldn't have. If you can grow one, grow one. Not everyone is so lucky.
5. Some of the wide shots of Auerbach look green-screened, so I guess this isn't as authentic as it looks. Also, some of these close-ups look like stock footage, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.
6. I bet you at least one member of the audience is a parent of either Dan Auerbach or Patrick Carney.
7. Other than David Fricke, I wonder who all of these other names running along the bottom belong to. They're probably friends, or fans that won this in a contest or something like that.
8. This looks like some awful video you'd find in the bowels of the Internet where someone (or everyone) commits suicide at the end, like Budd Dwyer or the Jonestown cult. I guess grainy footage of people speaking passionately and freaking out is inherently creepy.
9. It seems like Dan Auerbach got the short end of the stick here, having to stand up for the entire shoot while Patrick Carney gets to sit down and sneak booze. Though as a drummer, he pretty much has to sit down no matter what.
10. I don't like how the Black Keys are still trying to pass as a duo, when there's clearly more going on in this song than just guitar and drums. They don't even perform as a duo anymore. I'm just throwing this out there, but the White Stripes never added anybody else to their line-up (although Jack White was borderline obsessive-compulsive when it came to stuff like numbers and colors).
11. Upon further investigation, I see that the two of them are the sole performers on the track (other than Danger Mouse), so they get a pass. But when bands like R.E.M. act like a trio and pretend they don't have a drummer, it bugs me a lot.
