Ohio Players is The Black Keys' fourth album in five years, a dynamic that's easy to explain, says Auerbach: ’We never stopped recording.’ There was his and Carney's reunion after a five-year hiatus on 2019‘s Let's Rock, then 2021’s hit Delta Kream, featuring covers of Mississippi hill country. On the 2022 album Dropout Boogie, a fast-paced series of new originals, the duo worked with external writers for the first time: Greg Cartwright of Memphis rockers Reigning Sound and Angelo Petraglia, who has worked with Kings of Leon and teenager Taylor Swift. (Cartwright and Petraglia are also back on Ohio Players).

Carney estimates that at one point he and Auerbach had ‘around fifty songs’ in the works for Ohio Players, many of which were created ‘in the traditional way - we jammed in the studio’. And there was ‘no let-up’, says Auerbach, when the guests arrived. ‘Beck is so prolific - he'll write a song one way, then say, ‘I've got another idea’ and write something with a completely different melody.’ In early 2023, The Black Keys were in London, combining work and pleasure - DJing gigs while Auerbach promoted the Arcs' second album, Electrophonic Chronic - writing and recording three songs, one a day, with Noel Gallagher at the hip, analogue Toe Rag Studios. ‘As we sat there and talked about the people who write the great songs in the rock and roll world, he was one of them,’ says Auerbach. And there was a kind of back story. In 2009, The Black Keys were invited to open for Oasis. ‘But we were busy,’ Carney recalls, ’and Oasis broke up anyway.’

At Toe Rag, Gallagher and The Black Keys got down to work the old-fashioned way - sitting ‘in a circle with our instruments,’ says Auerbach. ‘I had a vocal mic, Noel had a microphone, Pat was on drums and Leon was there with this weird little ‘60s-style organ.’ The Black Keys later nicknamed Gallagher ‘the Chord Lord’. ‘He sat there and played chords,’ recalls Auerbach. ‘He wouldn't stop until he found the chord that matched mine.’ In fact, the versions of ‘On the Game’, ‘Only Love Matters’ and ‘You'll Pay’ on Ohio Players are all ‘live performances’, explains Auerbach, ‘us in the room playing the songs until they were done.’

Lil Noid and Juicy J, who's featured on ‘Paper Crown,’ came late to the Ohio Players' guest list after being on continuous loop between sessions. ‘Dan played a lot of Memphis rap from the ‘90s that I'd never heard before,’ says Carney, a slow-rolling, lyrically descriptive menace limited mostly to ‘these mixtapes that aren't on any streaming service and were uploaded to YouTube.’ Juicy J (real name Jordan Michael Huston III) was a founding member of Three 6 Mafia, who won an Oscar for their song on the 2005 Hustle and Flow soundtrack. Lil Noid (Derrick Harris) is best known for his 1995 tape Paranoid Funk, a classic of the Memphis horrorcore genre and Auerbach's favourite album from that scene. ‘We've been enamoured with this music all year,’ says Auerbach. ‘That's one of the reasons we had Juicy J and Lil Noid on our record, to tell part of their story.’

‘‘Candy and Her Friends’ was ‘half a song,’’ Carney admits, ’with a cool energy. We reached out to Lil Noid on Instagram; he came in and we played him the song. We've worked with rappers a lot - all the way back to The Black Keys' 2008 hip-hop project Blakroc - and sometimes they take hours and don't get anything done. But Lil Noid listened to it and said, ‘Give me the mic.’ He started doing some adlibs, which are on the record, and in fifteen minutes he had both verses done. And they were perfect.’

‘Paper Crown’ began “as a collaboration with Beck - and then we mangled it,” Auerbach admits with a laugh. ‘We kept the chorus but slowed it down’ and added Juicy J's rap literally at the last minute, just before The Black Keys dropped the finished album. ‘And it made sense,’ Carney adds, ’because Juicy J discovered Lil Noid. I sent the track to Juicy on a Thursday. By Monday afternoon, we had it back.’

Ohio Players was ready for the world. The Black Keys will perform the album live in Switzerland on 2 July