''Dropout Boogie'' is the eleventh studio album by American rock duo

the Black Keys The Black Keys are an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, Singing, vocals) and Patrick Carney (Drum kit, drums). The duo began as an Independent music, independent act, record ...

. It was released on May 13, 2022, by Easy Eye Sound and

Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch ...

. The album was preceded by the release of two singles: the lead single "Wild Child", which was released on March 10, 2022, in conjunction with the album announcement, and "It Ain't Over", which was released on April 27, 2022. ''Dropout Boogie'' received favorable reviews from music critics and was nominated for

Best Rock Album The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sever ...

and

Best Rock Performance The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for ...

for lead single "Wild Child" at the

65th Annual Grammy Awards The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year – October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022 – as de ...

Background

Work for ''Dropout Boogie'' began in summer of 2021, which initially saw the Black Keys plan ideas for the album as a duo before recruiting multiple musicians to collaborate with them such as

Greg Cartwright Gregory Johnathon Cartwright, also known by his stage name Greg Oblivian (born March 18, 1972), is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee. From 2001 to 2022 he fronted Reigning Sound which was signed to Merge Reco ...

Reigning Sound Reigning Sound was an American rock and roll band originally based in Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States. As of 2019, along with fronting Reigning Sound, Greg Cartwright also reformed his past band Greg Oblivian and the Tip T ...

and

Billy Gibbons William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American rock musician, best known as the guitarist, primary vocalist, and only constant member of ZZ Top. He began his career in Moving Sidewalks, who recorded '' Flash'' (1969) and op ...

ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For almost 56 years, it consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard (musician), Frank Beard, and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill prior to his death in 2021. ZZ ...

, the latter a longtime friend of the duo. The album was recorded at

Dan Auerbach Daniel Quine Auerbach (; born May 14, 1979) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has ...

's Easy Eye Sound studio in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Promotion

Singles

The album's lead single "Wild Child" was released on March 10, 2022. The song topped ''

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''s

Adult Alternative Airplay Adult Alternative Airplay (also known as Triple A or Triple A Airplay, and formerly Adult Alternative Songs and Triple A Songs) is a record chart currently published by ''Billboard'' that ranks the most popular songs on adult album alternative radi ...

chart and would later be used as the theme song for the 2024 WWE Royal Rumble premium live event. The second single from the album, "It Ain't Over", was released on April 27, 2022.

US Tour

To promote the album, the Black Keys embarked on the Dropout Boogie Tour, which consisted of 32 dates across the United States with

Band of Horses Band of Horses is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle, Seattle, Washington. Led by singer-songwriter Ben Bridwell, who has been the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes, the band's current line ...

as a supporting act alongside Ceramic Animal,

Early James Fredrick James Mullis Jr. (born June 2, 1993), known professionally as Early James, is an American singer-songwriter. He is signed onto studio-label Easy Eye Sound, the studio-label of Black Keys' guitarist Dan Auerbach. Early life James wa ...

, and the Velveteers as opening acts on select dates.

European Tour

On December 8, 2022, the band announced a European and UK tour, consisting of seven dates across Europe, with support of

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rock band

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Critical reception

Upon release, ''Dropout Boogie'' received positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream publications, the album has a score of 73 based on 12 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a score of 6.9 based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Hal Horowitz of ''

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

'' gave the album four out of five stars, and concluded his review by writing: "Fame, fortune and influence haven't dulled he band'sinitial impulses, something made clear on the hypnotic unvarnished vibe created throughout the superb ''Dropout Boogie''." Writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Stephen Thomas Erlewine also gave the album four out of five stars and noted how the material on the album "feels open and lively in a way" in contrast to the band's most recent work and added that the album as a whole "gives the impression of a jukebox filled with a bunch of excavated gems". Joe Goggins of '' DIY'' said that the album was "a step forward rather than back for The Black Keys" and had the possibility of being their "most varied record" since their 2011 album '' El Camino''.

Track listing

Personnel

The Black Keys *

– vocals, bass, guitar,

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(all tracks); synthesizer (1, 2, 6),

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

(5) *

Patrick Carney Patrick James Carney (born April 15, 1980) is an American musician and producer best known as the drummer of the Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. Early life Carney stated in an interview with '' Modern Drummer'' that he never t ...

– drums, production (all tracks); bass (1), guitar (1, 4), synthesizer (1–3, 6), percussion (2, 3, 5, 9) Additional musicians * Andy Gabbard – background vocals (1–3, 5–10),

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

(1), piano (7), guitar (5, 7) * Sam Bacco – percussion (1–7, 9, 10) * Ray Jacildo – Hammond organ (3, 6);

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

, piano (6) *

Sierra Ferrell Sierra Elizabeth Ferrell (born August 3, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from West Virginia, whose music incorporates elements of Folk music, folk, bluegrass music, bluegrass, and gypsy jazz, and styles such as Tango music, ta ...

– background vocals (4) * Billy F Gibbons – featured guitar (5) Technical *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...

– mastering *

Steve Fallone Steve Fallone is a New York-based mastering engineer. He won at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. It recognized the best recordings, compo ...

– mastering *

Tchad Blake Tchad Blake (born 1955) is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixer and musician. A native of Baytown, Texas, he has worked with artists and musicians including Al Green, American Music Club, Ani DiFranco, Apartment 26, Arctic Monke ...

– mixing,

editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

Tom Elmhirst Tom Elmhirst (born 8 June 1971) is a British mix engineer. He has worked with artists including Adele, Beck, David Bowie, Cage the Elephant, Lady Gaga, Residente, and Amy Winehouse, among many others. Elmhirst has received numerous accolades ...

– mixing, editing * Caleb VanBuskirk –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* M. Allen Parker – engineering * Jonny Ullman – engineering assistance * McKinley James – engineering assistance * Tyler Zwiep – engineering assistance Imagery * Perry Shall – design and layout * Jim Herrington – photography

Charts

References

{{The Black Keys 2022 albums The Black Keys albums Albums produced by Dan Auerbach Albums produced by Patrick Carney Nonesuch Records albums Easy Eye Sound (record label) albums Albums recorded at Easy Eye Sound (studio)