The Arcs – Yours, Dreamily
4.5/5
Dan Auerbach is best known for being the front half of iconic garage-rock duo The Black Keys, and for more committed fans, a solo artist with his 2009 record Keep It Hid. Originally starting as a new solo effort, Auerbach joined musical forces with long-time collaborators Leon Michels, Richard Swift (of the Shins), Homer Steinweiss, and Nick Movshon to create the psychedelic-soul rock outfit The Arcs.
(Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Records)
Their debut record Yours, Dreamily has been making headlines since the band announced a release – and rightfully so. The 13-track album is a shift transition from the traditional blues-rock’n’roll sound of which Auerbach/Black Keys fans are familiar with, and into a more soulful, desert-dry psychedelic sound. As a five-piece, the vacant space a duo often leaves behind has been filled with synthesizers, melodic bass lines, multiple guitar layers, and alternating backing vocals for a dense, yet wispy sound. Yours, Dreamily flows through with cool, studded intent; it’s like relaxing in the cool shade during a heat wave with a subtle breeze.
Unless you are completely unfamiliar with Auerbach’s work and live under a fortified rock, it is hard to not compare The Arcs to The Black Keys; the riff-based duo are firmly planted in the paradigms of many music listeners. Fortunately, the new project reaches outside the familiar box. New York-based all-female mariachi band Mariachi Flor de Toloache were featured on most of the album, and along with the subtle distortion over the psychedelic-western guitar riffs, the album has a Spanish-American-fusion demeanour.
Vintage-rock track “Put A Flower in Your Pocket” has Auerbach written all over it – groovy, slow-burning verses – but there is something refreshing and slightly experimental to it, somewhere along the Mexico-U.S. border. “Pistol Made of Bones”, and the retro-soul “Everything You Do (You Do For You)” follow a similar suit, like a New Mexico-based Black Keys doppelganger.
Parallel to the desert-esque vibe of the album, The Arcs create rich, psychedelic, soulful tunes with the Mayweather-Pacquiao-inspired single “Stay In My Corner”, “Cold Companion”, Tame Impala-esque synth track “Nature’s Child”, and “Chains of Love” for starters.
Yours, Dreamily has quickly become a monumental component to Auerbach’s discography. With his old friends by his side, The Arcs are a side project with the potential and originality to become a long term ordeal. Branching out into psychedelic, soul, blues, and southern rock, the genre-bending record is an exciting, original effort from Auerbach and his friends.
You can buy the album and hear more tracks through the band’s website.
