So…I managed to piss a hell of a lot of people off with a Black Keys album review I wrote in NME last week.

Hands up – I had no idea that giving it 5/10 would cause such grief. I even went down to church this morning, chanted a couple of hail marys and flailed myself with some rosary beads.

Did I really mean the things I said? Yes. Does the entire publishing world really disagree with the things I said? Yes. Do I now take back the things I said? No.

I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again: whilst I applaud their raw magic on the live stage, I really feel that ‘Attack & Release’ is a fairly mainstream contribution to the blues/rock canon. Dangermouse is a tour de force. I salute him on this record, but to be frank, if I’m going to listen to 70s prog rock I’ll whack on some Free.

I find it interesting that the only two slightly critical reviews for this record were by two women. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it bears some influence on things. Who knows.

What I do know is that I got my Lost La’s ‘Breakloose’ CD in the post today and if you want to hear the sound of true blues with a quietly subtle twist, I suggest you give ‘Night Walk’ a spin. I couldn’t find this on YouTube, but I did find a wicked rendition of ‘Feelin’. Any excuse, eh?