Album Review
April 29, 2026
Romeo Okwara
Perhaps no one has been busier in the last near-decade than Ohioan rock band, The Black Keys. Since originally forming in 2001, The Black Keys have released thirteen studio albums – with the fourteenth on its way – six of which have been released since 2019, upholding their loose pattern of releasing an album a year.
Originating from Akron, Ohio, The Black Keys consist of friends Dan Auerbach on guitar and vocals and Patrick Carney on drums. With five Grammy wins (among numerous other awards) and upwards of fifteen nominations, The Black Keys have solidified themselves in music history as legends with their highly recognizable blues-rock sound. You’ve likely heard some of their music even if you didn’t know who made it, or even if rock isn’t necessarily your genre of choice. I myself knew of their track “Lonely Boy” (off their 2011 album El Camino) long before I knew the band itself.
The pair released their thirteenth studio album, No Rain, No Flowers, not even a year ago in August of 2025. No Rain, No Flowers was the band’s way of coping with and moving past the treacherous year of 2024, in which they had “their worst-charting album since 2006, the cancellation of an arena tour after ticket sales lagged, and the firing and public castigation of legendary manager Irving Azoff” according to Los Angeles Times writer Stuart Miller.
However, in the spirit of an album a year and an equally troubling 2025, the pair announced their next upcoming album, Peaches!, in early February of this year. The ten-track record has an expected release date of May 1, 2026 via Easy Eye Sound.
Peaches! is an all-covers album the pair had begun working on following Auerbach’s late father’s esophageal cancer diagnosis. The album’s first single, “You Got to Lose,” (originally by Earl Hooker) released February 5 with an accompanying music video.
Despite being an all-cover album, Peaches! is described as raw and visceral as just about any of their original work, with Auerbach himself describing it “as the band’s ‘most natural record’ since their 2002 debut.” The pair went full DIY-mode, embracing every emotion that inspired the album’s birth, running directly toward those feelings of uncertainty and fear at full speed. According to the band themselves, the album “was recorded with all musicians playing in the same room with few overdubs, as is the first record mixed entirely by the band themselves since 2006’s Magic Potion.”
Their turbulent emotions are evident even in the album’s first single, “You Got to Lose,” from the lyrics (You got to lose / You can’t win all the time) to the tempo; although not too different from the original recording, there is a personal urgency embedded into the recording, dashed through with that signature Black Keys guitar tone.
With Auerbach’s father’s diagnosis hanging over them like a dark cloud, Carney, a friend of multiple decades and knowing his buddy well, “proposed exorcising the experience in the studio, and they cut their new project in a fevered improvisational outburst.” Auerbach had been caring for his father at the time, with his father moving into his home post-diagnosis, and the recording of this album had been both an outlet and a distraction.
In an interview with NME Magazine, Auerbach said, “We weren’t making a record. We were just jamming, like this is for us… 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.”
The tracklist for Peaches! is cleverly and personally chosen, inspired by both Auerbach and Carney’s love for record collecting which, according to the band, “in recent years has escalated into an ongoing series of Record Hang DJ-set dance parties where they spin vintage 45s for packed, high-energy dancefloors in the coolest spots across the globe.”
The Peaches! tracklist:
“Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire by Willie Griffin
“Stop Arguing Over Me” by Paul “Wine” Jones
“Who’s Been Foolin’ You” by Arthur Crudup
“It’s a Dream” by Charles Fisher Jr.
“Tomorrow Night” by Sam Coslow and Wilhelm Grosz
“You Got to Lose” by Earl Hooker
“Tell Me You Love Me” by Jesse Mae Brooks
“She Does It Right” by Wilko Johnson
“Fireman Ring the Bell” by R.L. Burnside
“Nobody But You Baby” by Junior Kimbrough
Peaches! isn’t The Black Keys’ first time dabbling in cover albums, though. As mentioned before, this is their third all-covers album, the first being Chulahoma, an EP exclusively dedicated to Junior Kimbrough covers released in 2006, and the second being a personal favorite of mine, Delta Kream.
The latter released in 2021, a compilation dedicated to the source of the duo’s love of music and performing in general: Mississippi hill country blues. In similar Peaches! fashion, Delta Kream was recorded in a live studio in only two days. Each track often features the band’s first takes, further proving the duo’s love for the genre because of how effortless each recording and performance is.
Peaches! is calling back to Delta Kream in more ways than just being an album of covers; both album covers feature photography by iconic Memphis-born photographer William Eggleston, whose work primarily featured quiet Mississippian moments. Contrary to the band’s last few album covers being similar in style (black, white, gray and accompanied by one or two other colors only), both Peaches! and Delta Kream act as colorful, high-spirited bookends.
About a month ago, The Black Keys released the second single for Peaches! with another accompanying music video: “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire,” building further anticipation for the album’s release coming up here shortly. Old and new fans alike are stoked across the internet, with many cheering about the return to The Black Keys’ return to their old sound and some even talking about the possibility of new original music coming later this year, too.
Live performances are at the root of any rock or blues artist, and there is no exception for The Black Keys. The pair will be hitting the road in late April, just before the official release of Peaches! on May 1, to kick off their aptly named Peaches ‘n Kream World Tour, with each venue “hand-picked” by the band themselves. Tickets are available now.
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