Black Keys "Tighten Up"

Black Keys "Tighten Up"

Music Video Review

By our guest blogger, Nick Hanover

Despite the Danger Mouse connection (he produced "Tighten Up" and all of the Black Keys' last album), it is still extremely weird to see the Black Keys enter the Billboard Hot 100. It's not that "Tighten Up" isn't enjoyable or even that it's hard to find that a large amount of people could like it, it's just that the Black Keys are so at odds with the current Hot 100 artists (Cage the Elephant withstanding) and even bands like the White Stripes, who share some similarities to the Black Keys, at least have a huge image backing them up. The Black Keys are just your average guys, playing great but not necessarily groundbreaking or forward-looking blues rock.

Still, if you're going to go for the Hot 100, it makes sense to do it with the backing of a video as novel and cute as "Tighten Up." It's got kids doing a YouTube-style lip dub, a brawl on a playground and the Black Keys getting bloodied over a woman.

The basic premise is that the Black Keys' two sons are having a "play date," despite one saying the other "smells like ranch dressing." The Black Keys themselves are content to just chill on the bench and watch their kids from afar, giving the boys encouraging nods when they try to court a girl and even letting them get their hands dirty when they start duking it out over her. Until the fight gets ugly and they have to intervene, of course, which only results in the duo getting pummeled by a heap of children and then, eventually, noticing a woman of their own to fight over.

It's a fun, light video that you might send to both your dad and your mom and expect them to forward it to their friends--and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You really have to give the Black Keys credit for getting some popular attention without altering their sound all that much and keeping their videos simple and punchy, much like their music.

View the video below. Thoughts?