Lo/Hi

Last updated
"Lo/Hi"
Lo Hi The Black Keys single.jpg
Single by The Black Keys
from the album "Let's Rock"
ReleasedMarch 7, 2019
Recorded2019
Studio Easy Eye Sound (Nashville, Tennessee)
Genre
Length2:57
Label Nonesuch
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • The Black Keys
The Black Keys singles chronology
"Weight of Love"
(2015)
"Lo/Hi"
(2019)
"Eagle Birds"
(2019)

"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]

Contents

Background and recording

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

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

"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

The Black Keys

Additional personnel

Production

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA) [23] Gold500,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

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References

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  7. Reed, Ryan; Legaspi, Althea (March 7, 2019). "The Black Keys Return With Scorching New Song 'Lo/Hi'". Rolling Stone . Retrieved March 22, 2019.
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