Gold on the Ceiling

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"Gold on the Ceiling"
Gold-on-the-ceiling.jpg
Single by the Black Keys
from the album El Camino
ReleasedFebruary 25, 2012
Recorded2011 at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, Tennessee
Genre
Length3:44
Label Nonesuch
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
The Black Keys singles chronology
"Lonely Boy"
(2011)
"Gold on the Ceiling"
(2012)
"Little Black Submarines"
(2012)
Music video
"Gold on the Ceiling" on YouTube

"Gold on the Ceiling" is the third track from El Camino , the seventh studio album by American rock band the Black Keys. It was released as the record's second single on February 25, 2012. The song was certified platinum in Australia and Canada, and is tied with "Fever" as the band's highest-charting song in the UK. [3]

Contents

Music videos

Two videos were shot for the song. The first, directed by Reid Long, features footage from the band's concerts, as well as candid shots of them on tour.

A second music video, directed by Harmony Korine, was shot prior to the single release, but was not released until May 2012. The video features the band members wearing Baby Björns and being carried by giant doppelgängers of theirs, played by two Belmont Bruins men's basketball players. [4]

Reception

Will Hermes of Rolling Stone called the song's keyboards "a serrated organ growl backed up with a SWAT team of hand claps" and cited it as an example of Danger Mouse's prowess as a producer and co-writer. Summarizing the song, Hermes wrote, "It's Sixties bubblegum garage pop writ large, with T. Rex swagger and a guitar freakout that perfectly mirrors the lyrics, a paranoid rant that makes you shiver while you shimmy." [1] John Soeder of The Plain Dealer labeled it one of the album's finest and said that it sounded like a hybrid of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2". [5]

Harley Brown of Consequence of Sound called the song "bombastic, slightly sleazy" and said that it "best sums up The Black Keys' almost unbelievably consistent musicianship and success". [6] Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly said that the song, "with its swarm-of-bees organs and acid-trip gospel harmonies, could be a lost Nuggets gem". [7] Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times , writing about the song's retro stylings, said that it "sounds as if it's existed forever". [8] Sam Richards of NME said that the song's "brilliantly demented cowboy glam holler... is boosted by the band's new trio of female backing singers wailing for all they're worth". [2]

Single cover

The cover art for the single is a photo of the dilapidated south entrance to the former Kaufmann's/Macy's in Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio.

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) [25] Platinum70,000^
Canada (Music Canada) [26] Gold40,000*
Italy (FIMI) [27] Gold15,000
United Kingdom (BPI) [28] Gold400,000
United States (RIAA) [29] 2× Platinum2,000,000

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

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References

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  13. @umasshockey (October 16, 2019). "The votes are in and our new goal song has been determined... 🥁🥁🥁 Gold on the Ceiling wins with 37.7% of the vote! It will officially debut Friday night vs. Union! Thanks to all who voted (yes we removed duplicates)! #NewMass | #Flagship🚩" (Tweet) via Twitter.
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