While he's best known as one half of the Black Keys, Dan Auerbach's built himself quite a resume of extracurricular actives in the past few years, largely behind the boards. He's produced for artists including Ray LaMontagne and New Orleans piano legend Dr. John, and helped give Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence its sweeping, cinematic sheen.With his latest side-project the Arcs, the guitarist and vocalist steps back into the spotlight, recruiting Truth and Soul Records founder Leon Michels, Black Keys touring bassist Richard Swift, Menahan Street Band member Homer Steinweiss, Amy Winehouse collaborator Nick Movshon, and guitarist Kenny Vaughan.
Instead of coming across as a "Dan Auerbach & Co." record though, Yours, Dreamily strikes a more collaborative balance, with all members receiving songwriting credits and an overall feeling of longtime friends jamming ego-free in basements (never mind the fact one of those practice spaces was New York's Electric Lady Studios). In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Auerbach said they were inspired by "old soul records, Captain Beefheart, and newer hip-hop".
Much like Auerbach and Patrick Carney's well-meaning but poorly-executed rap-rock experiment BlakRoc, the album was recorded quickly in two weeks, though fans of the Akron, Ohio's last stadium rock duo standing will find plenty to enjoy here. Rollicking opener "Outta My Mind" could easily be a lost Black Keys Attack & Release B-side and the Arcs incorporate a love of psychedelia and the Stax Records catalog more successfully than the group's last outing. There's a lot of influences coming together here, but they work sonically, from the clop of horses and bird chirps on the country-tinged "Everything You Do (You Do for You)" to the orgiastic shrieks and frenzied saxophone on "Come & Go".
While nobody's claiming to be innovating wildly here, the biggest flaw of Yours, Dreamily lies in its ham-fisted and occasionally rote lyrics ("Pistol Made of Bones" is the biggest offender). With the exception of the horn-heavy, Junior Kimbrough-referencing "Velvet Ditch", which Auerbach says was inspired by a motorcycle trip he took from Nashville to Clarksdale, Miss., too many of the songs here come off like failed attempts to write a Muscle Shoals version of "Bad Blood". It's not the first time he's sung about ill-fated romance (his acrimonious split with wife Stephanie Gonis in 2013 made tabloid and music blog headlines alike)—see also his 2009 solo album Keep It Hid—but over the course of 14 tracks, it grows slightly repetitive.
Thankfully, his wearied tales get a welcome assist from Brooklyn-based all-female mariachi band Flor de Toloache, who provide ghostly backup vocals and a much-needed sense of perspective on slow-burning highlights "Put a Flower in Your Pocket" and quasi-ballad "Chains of Love" (disappointingly not an Erasure cover). On tender lead single "Stay in My Corner" (inspired by the May 2015 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao), he pleads his allegiance to a lover claiming "I will fight for you" but it sounds like it's himself he's trying to convince. Like that fight, the Arcs will draw audiences (they've already been booked as a musical guest on an upcoming episode of "Late Show With Stephen Colbert" and are sure to be a lock for the festival circuit) and Yours, Dreamily draws spirited performances from its players, but works best as a one-off event.
