★★★★
- Ain’t Messin ‘Round: 👍🏻
- When My Train Pulls In: 👍🏻
- Blak and Blu: 🤷♂️
- Bright Lights: 👍🏻
- Travis County: 👍🏻
- The Life: 👍🏻
- Glitter Ain’t Gold (Jumpin’ for Nothin’): 👍🏻
- Numb: 👍🏻
- Please Come Home: 👍🏻
- Things Are Changin’: 🤷♂️
- Third Stone from the Sun / If You Love Me Like You Say: 👍🏻
- You Saved Me: 👍🏻
- Next Door Neighbor Blues: 👍🏻
Take a heaping helping of The Black Keys, roll in Jimi Hendrix and 90’s R&B, then sprinkle Robin Trower, Robert Johnson, and Chuck Berry and bake until crust is flaky. What you’ll get is Blak and Blu.
I was really surprised by this album, especially when I got to track three. One & two sound a lot like The Black Keys, who I really like, but then Blak and Blu is something else entirely. This happens several times through this album. Just when you think you know what you’re getting, you get hit with a genre shift that manages to still feel like it belongs with the rest of the tracks on this album.
I think it would be easy to say that Gary Clark Jr. couldn’t make up his mind what kind of musician he was so he just jumbled a bunch of stuff onto an album, but I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. He was nominated for Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Traditional R&B Performance for tracks on this album. That’s the first time that’s ever happened. I think really what you’re hearing w/Blak and Blu is a guy who genuinely loves music of all kinds and appreciates its history making an album with great songs, that still sound good together, regardless of style.
