Young Blood

Marcus King broke from his own Marcus King Band for El Dorado, a 2020 album that found him digging deep into his soul roots. His navigator on that departure was Dan Auerbach, the chief Black Key who established a roots-rock enterprise as the proprietor and producer at Easy Eye Sound. The pair reunite on Young Blood, the 2022 record that suggests King is now a lone wolf, as it returns the hotshot guitarist to the music that made his bones: big, thick blues-rock, saturated in volume and fuzz. Where the Marcus King Band used to roam and ramble, patterning their loose-limbed gait on the Allman Brothers Band, Auerbach keeps King on the straight and narrow. Of the 11 tracks on Young Blood, only one inches over the five-minute mark, while most of the cuts hover somewhere between three and four minutes -- the ideal length for a pop song. These tunes are definitely not pop songs -- theyre rooted in the blues, heavy on guitar and testifying vocals -- yet the succinct structure means the hooks and melodies sink their hooks; theyre not lost in a maze of winding improvisations. Credit also goes to Auerbach, who keeps things lively and colorful, making sure the sonics shift just enough from track to track to give the record momentum. He also plays up Kings allusions to classic rock, letting nods to Creedence Clearwater Revival ("Rescue Me") and Grand Funk Railroad ("Dark Cloud") linger in the air, acting as a common language to reveal what King brings to these familiar sounds. King may be letting his feelings spill onto the page here -- his originals were written in the wake of a bad 2021 breakup -- but his signature stamp isnt emotionality so much as its enthusiasm. He gets a thrill out of cranking up his amp and trying to sing as loud as his guitar, and thats the energy that truly fuels Young Blood. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine