Hanni El Khatib
Moonlight
Innovative Leisure
Street: 01.20
Hanni El Khatib = Dan Auerbach / Black Lips
 
There’s really not much that separates this album from a good album by The Black Keys. The riffs, melodies and solos all sound really similar to me. The spacey, western vibes of Attack and Release are perfected on “Worship Song (No.2),” and “Moonlight” is exactly the kind of blues-rock that the Keys sent mainstream with the release of Brothers. Comparisons aside, this is a re-ally good album, and it’s just a touch more polished than Khatib’s last release, Head in the Dirt. Not only does the production on Moonlight sound clearer and fuller, but there’s a level of au-thenticity present that somewhat lacked before. Khatib doesn’t sound like he’s trying to create an image for himself on this record. Moonlight shows me that he’s actually become the rocker he was destined to be, and the disco outro of “Two Brothers” has me intrigued as to what’s next from Khatib. –Justin Gallegos