The Arcs
Yours, Dreamily, Nonesuch
★★★★
BY DAVID FRICKE
“I’m old enough to know the game/But pushing buttons now is all that keeps me sane,” Dan Auerbach sings in “Outta My Mind,” the opening jolt on this strange, seductive album, through a spooky melange of spaghetti-Western guitars, funk drumming and oily reverb. The first line is plain enough: Auerbach, 36, has been a rock star for more than a third of his life, as the singer-guitarist-songwriter of the modern-blues duo the Black Keys. The second explains why Auerbach – a side-project fiend, with his own Nashville studio, who’s produced records for acts like Dr. John and Lana Del Rey – was compelled to form another new band. When the game gets weird, work is salvation. “Outta my mind,” he…
