The Black Keys: Brothers

Label: Nonesuch

Are the Black Keys ready to supplant Wilco as America's "best" rock band? The Keys also hail from a working-class Midwestern city (Akron, OH), and they've now been a band for almost a decade, which is about the time when Wilco went from good to downright great. Regardless, the casually swaggering Brothers is the Black Keys' eighth album (not including the eye-opening Blakroc project of last year), and you'd be hard-pressed to find a band more comfortable with itself. Dig the way "Howlin' for You" exists as both a fuzz-blues tune and (with that Bo Diddley beat) as a total shake-yo'-ass imperative. The duo's lineup gets them plenty of comparisons to the White Stripes, but they more closely resemble Dead Weather's fat, low rumble (and mood) on "She's Long Gone," among others. As for greatness -- that involves a band transcending its influences, which they get to on memorable songs like "I'm Not the One" and "Too Afraid to Love You," reaching deep into blues mysticism to pull out something unique. (M.L. Thrope)