By now, the Black Keys' template has become more or less set: swampy retro garage rockers steeped in Southern blues. Yet for its latest platter, the Akron, Ohio group still manages to expand its parameters a bit, thanks to ubiquitous producer Danger Mouse. Granted, riff-machines like "Remember When (Side B)" sound like something guitarist-vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney could have come up with by themselves. But trippy touches in the otherwise business-as-usual "Strange Times" and "I Got Mine," not to mention some funky flutes on "Same Old Thing" and organ flourishes on "Oceans & Streams" (among other subtle sonic accoutrements), reveal the deft hand of the Mouse, who doses the duo's raggedy sound with some righteous psych mojo.

-- Joshua Klein