Lo/Hi
| "Lo/Hi" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Lo Hi The Black Keys single.jpg | ||||
| Single by The Black Keys | ||||
| from the album "Let's Rock" | ||||
| Released | March 7, 2019 | |||
| Recorded | 2019 | |||
| Studio | Easy Eye Sound (Nashville, Tennessee) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:57 | |||
| Label | Nonesuch | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producer |
| |||
| The Black Keys singles chronology | ||||
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"Lo/Hi" is a song by the American rock band the Black Keys. It was released as the lead single from their ninth album, Let's Rock, on March 7, 2019. The song topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock, Adult Alternative Songs, Rock Airplay, and Alternative Songs charts in the United States simultaneously, making it the first song ever to do so.[2]
Background and recording
[edit | edit source]The single was the first new material by the band in nearly five years.[3] The next day, the song was used by CBS as the theme for its promotion and coverage of the 2019 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament along with a video of the Black Keys performing it in an airplane hangar.[4]
The song was written by band members Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney and was recorded in late 2018 at Easy Eye Sound in Nashville, Tennessee.[5]
Composition
[edit | edit source]David Paulson, writing for The Tennessean, described "Lo/Hi" as a "a groovy, gritty rock" and "soulful" track. He compared the track's sound to the likes of British glam rock band T. Rex.[6] In a positive review, Althea Legaspi and Ryan Reed, writing for Rolling Stone, called Lo/Hi, as a "scorching, psychedelic" track.[7]
Joshua Bote of NPR described "Lo/Hi" as "rich" and "gospel-style", and said it was a return to their earlier Southern/blues style as opposed to the more funk orientated previous album, Turn Blue. "The Akron, Ohio duo of Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach built its name off chugging, crunchy Southern rock like the type dispensed on "Lo/Hi," so it's a welcome return from the gentler sounds that colored the group's last album, 2014's Turn Blue."[8]
Jillian Mapes, writing for Pitchfork, compared the style of the song to ZZ Top, and offered a more mixed review of the song, praising the background vocals of Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson, which inject "a welcome texture", but concluded that the track was "wholly unsurprising".[9]
Commercial performance
[edit | edit source]"Lo/Hi" was the Black Keys' first top-ten song on the Hot Rock Songs chart in nearly seven years, entering at number 34 in its first week before reaching number five the second week. The song collected 2.3 million streams and 8,000 digital downloads in its first week in the United States.[10] The song made history by topping Billboard's Mainstream Rock, Adult Alternative Songs, Rock Airplay, and Alternative Songs charts simultaneously, making it the first time any song has reached number one on all four formats at once.[11]
Personnel
[edit | edit source]The Black Keys
- Dan Auerbach – lead vocals, guitars, bass guitar, co-producer
- Patrick Carney – drums, percussion, co-producer
Additional personnel
- Leisa Hans – backing vocals
- Ashley Wilcoxson – backing vocals
Production
- Tchad Blake – mixing engineer
- Richard Dodd – mastering engineer
- M. Allen Parker – engineer
- Marc Whitmore – engineer
Charts
[edit | edit source]
Weekly charts[edit | edit source]
|
Year-end charts[edit | edit source]
|
Certifications
[edit | edit source]| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[23] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
|
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
References
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- ^ "The Black Keys – Lo/Hi" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- ^ "The Black Keys – Lo/Hi" (in French). Ultratip. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ "The Black Keys Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
- ^ "The Black Keys Chart History (Canada Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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- ^ "The Black Keys Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
- ^ "The Black Keys Chart History (Rock & Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
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