The Black Keys' reunion has sparked a throwback ninth album. 'Let's Rock' is due on June 28.

“The record is like a homage to electric guitar,” drummer Patrick Carney says in a news release. “We took a simple approach and trimmed all the fat like we used to.”

In the years since 2014's Turn Blue, he and Dan Auerbach have remained very busy – just not with one another. Auerbach started another band, issued a solo project and produced several other records; Carney wrote the theme for TV's BoJack Horseman, produced 2017's Hopeless Romantic for fiancee Michelle Branch and started his own side project called Sad Planets.

Still, when they got back together, they said something immediately clicked again. 'Let's Rock' was written in the studio and tracked live at Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound in Nashville.

“We fell right back into it, really, day one,” Carney told Rolling Stone. “We wrote two songs the first day. We’re just fucking around, and that’s what comes out.”

"Eagle Birds," the second song from the album, debuted earlier today on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show. That follows the previously released single “Lo/Hi,” which is currently at No. 3 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs and Alternative Songs charts. You can listen to the new song below.

The complete 12-song track listing for 'Let's Rock' is below. The record is already available for pre-order in all formats at the band's website.

This long-awaited announcement arrives ahead of a headlining North American tour with Modest Mouse. Those 2019 shows are the duo's first in four years, though this reunion seems to have been building. Carney sat in at an Auerbach concert late last year.

“It’s this magic that happens with Pat and I,” Auerbach told Rolling Stone. “It was the same thing that happened when we were 16 and started playing, and magically, it just sounds like music. It was really awesome, having the break and then coming back and just playing with Pat again. It felt great.”

He also revealed that inspiration for the album title didn't come from a celebratory place. During the Nashville sessions, Auerbach said they came across a newspaper story about Tennessee's first execution in more than a decade. Guards apparently asked the convicted murderer for any last words, and he replied, "Let's rock." The Black Keys' new album features an electric chair on the cover.

“Nothing makes you think more about life than death,” Auerbach laughed.

Easy Eye Sound / Nonesuch Records
Easy Eye Sound / Nonesuch Records
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The Black Keys, 'Let's Rock' Track Listing
"Shine a Little Light"
"Eagle Birds"
"Lo/Hi"
"Walk Across the Water"
"Tell Me Lies"
"Every Little Thing"
"Get Yourself Together"
"Sit Around and Miss You"
"Go"
"Breaking Down"
"Under the Gun"
"Fire Walk With Me"

 

 

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