El Camino [CD]

Reviewing The Black Keys 2010 Top Ten breakthrough album Brothers, Rolling Stone called the duo a two-man combo with a big-band mind. That description seems downright prophetic now. With the hard-rocking El Camino, The Black Keys fourth Nonesuch disc, guitarist-singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney conjure up an exhilarating, stadium-sized sound in collaboration with producer and friend Danger Mouse. El Camino boasts a no-nonsense brilliance: The pace is fast, the mood is upbeat, the choruses unfailingly addictive made for shouting along, preferably in a large, sweaty crowd.