- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Paste MagazineThis is the band's best yet. [Sep 2006, p.73]
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UrbThey take their place among the scruffiest, ugliest and most crowd-pleasing bad guys the West has ever spat out. [Sep 2006, p.131]
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Rolling StoneThe sound may be retro, but pure blues rock of this caliber is really timeless. [21 Sep 2006, p.84]
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Entertainment WeeklyLooser, but no less excellent, than their last collection. [15 Sep 2006, p.72]
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Magic Potion is a record where overwhelming competence meets measured restraint, but for me, sacrilege trumps sincerity, and I'd rather hear tuneful blasphemy than a tasteful snoozer of an album.
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It may take a while to sink in, but "Magic Potion" enhances its effects with every listen.
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As the album progresses, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish between one song and the next.
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This is vulgar music, completely unsentimental or nostalgic but with a deep, wild, and tenacious heart; it's spooky, un-caged, and frighteningly descriptive of our time and place.
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The group sounds as wonderfully debauched, degenerate and dejected as ever.
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Great in parts though it is, Magic Potion isn’t quite the album to attract a raft of newcomers to The Black Keys’ archaic rock.
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Throughout the record, the Black Keys don’t rock the boat much with their style, just continuing to hone it and make it all come together.
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Nothing new.
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Magic Potion never really manages to distinguish itself as an album; there are a number of excellent songs, but even with quite a few listens I never get the idea of the thing working as a collective whole.
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There's nothing surprising about what the Keys do here, but it's seldom less than satisfying, either.
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BlenderOnly the relatively sprightly "Just Got to Be" and the haunted-house voodoo of "Strange Desire" cut through the mire. [Oct 2006, p.130]
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MojoAnyone possessing their previous output will find little in the way of reinvention. [Oct 2006, p.96]
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Always a wee bit more clever than anyone gave them credit for, the Keys are now a pretty good Zeppelin knockoff for the indie crowd, and little more.
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New Musical Express (NME)They wisely avoid toying with any Darkness-style irony, but the Keys' insistence on authenticity does leave the album a little flat and humourless. [2 Sep 2006, p.21]
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SpinIf the Black Keys sped up a little, their stodginess might feel more songful. [Oct 2006, p.94]
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Q MagazineThe Black Keys may have as much in common with the conventional '70s blues-rock of Canned Heat and Free as they do with the more left-field THe White Stripes. [Oct 2006, p.118]
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UncutThe duo can't help sounding like they're holding back a little. [Oct 2006, p.99]
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MagnetMore than ever, Magic Potion hears the duo transitioning from blues to blues-based. [#73, p.87]
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At this point, homage is almost expected of the Keys, but in doing so, the band is starting to dilute the "Heavy Soul" and Thickfreakness of their earlier material, as well.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 69 out of 84
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Mixed: 11 out of 84
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Negative: 4 out of 84
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Dec 25, 2021
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Jul 5, 2013
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Jan 4, 2012