Peaches!, the band’s fourteenth studio album, is a visceral and raw 10-song collection described by singer Dan Auerbach as the band’s “most natural record” since their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up. The project was born in the wake of Auerbach’s late father’s diagnosis of esophageal cancer, as he was staying in Dan’s Nashville home, in rapid decline. Patrick Carney, Dan’s Black Keys bandmate and oldest, closest friend, knew without asking “that it would be good for Dan to have something to do.” That something, of course, was to head into the studio and crank up the amps.

“We weren’t making a record. We were just jamming, like this is for us,” Dan Auerbach says. “Really primal, in a moment when all the nerves were raw, just kinda screaming. We were going through a lot, trying to lift our spirits. I think my dad getting sick made me not give a fuck and just wanna scream for a bit.”

In similar DIY spirit to their debut, the album was recorded with all musicians playing in the same room with very few overdubs, and is the first album mixed entirely by the band themselves since 2006’s Magic Potion.

“Everything was all cut live in one with no separation, including vocals,” adds Patrick Carney. “It was a nightmare to mix but we got it sounding raw and filthy.”

The songs on Peaches! reflect Dan and Patrick’s obsessive record-collecting habit, which in recent years has escalated into an ongoing series of Record Hang DJ-set dance parties. These hangs fueled a deeper period of musical archaeology for both of them. “I’d look for 45s specifically to play at the record hangs,” Dan says, “but sometimes I’d find a song and think, ‘This might be fun for Pat and me to play live.’”

Peaches! cover art is illustrated with an image by the iconic Memphis-born photographer William Eggleston, a hero of the band’s, and see’s Patrick’s brother, Michael Carney, designing and art-directing the package as he did similarly with early Black Keys albums, notably winning a GRAMMY award for the Brothers cover.

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