How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love (or at least like) The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
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Artist:
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Album:It's Blitz
In the interest of full disclosure, I need to start by saying this: I was just about ready to give up on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Not in an 'I prefer their early stuff, don't like this new direction' kind of way. I didn't like them all that much to begin with. Nothing personal or anything - I just didn't get them .
I should have liked them from day one, of course - I dig, to paraphrase They Might Be Giants, a band with a chick singer and the Pixies-style Loud-Quiet-Loud crossed with CBGB-in-its-heyday art punk sensibilities were right in my wheelhouse (believe it or not - though I am the guy who once confessed to thinking Kelly Clarkson was cool). Admittedly, I associated, and still associate, 'Gold Lion' with one of the darkest periods of my life, but I didn't get them long before that. So when the opportunity to review 'It's Blitz' arose, I resisted the urge to immediately decline and instead said frak it, one more chance. At worst it'll be a chance to see if I can review objectively anymore.
Boy, am I glad I did.
'It's Blitz' feels like the glowing heart of what I'd written off as a pretty dark band. It's a changing of the band with the times - considerably more synth-and-drum-loop driven than the hoarse guitar sound of some of their previous work. It's closer to more recent contemporaries like MGMT than to earlier peers like the Strokes. If anything, it sounds more like how Karen O looks than the previous albums do - it's slick, deliberate and looks good (and knows it) but you can't help but feel that there's a fragility underneath it all. 'It's Blitz' needs a hug, but it might punch you if you try.
The album opener 'Zero' sucked me right in - it's so far from what I expected the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to produce, gentle but increasingly insistent, and such a joyous singalong you start to wonder if you've put in the right CD. 'Heads Will Roll' and 'Soft Shock' are in a similar vein, with Rolling Stones type lyrics instead of the dancy exuberance of 'Zero' giving them, and the album as a whole an increasingly sharp edge.
The middle four tracks - 'Dull Life', 'Shame and Fortune', 'Runaway' and 'Dragon Queen' are much closer to traditional Yeah Yeah Yeahs, if you can call them traditional. Guitars and percussions are brought back in with a determination that they make the most of what is, if I'm honest, a guest appearance on this album. This album is all about an evolution for the band, and whereas they don't leave the familiar behind entirely, it's the fact that these songs stand out on their own rather than blend in the rest that says that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are moving on.
It's with the last two tracks, though, that 'It's Blitz' really shines. They're probably the most gentle on the album, but there's a resolute spirit that says 'eff you; with or without you I'm doing just fine." Maybe I'm doing the New York based trio an injustice, but I just didn't expect this much heart from what I'd written off as a fashion-rock band. If the Killers are reading this (which admittedly is unlikely) - boys, it's time to take some notes.
So after all this, am I going back to give 'Fever To Tell' and Show Your Bones' another listen? I have to be honest, I don't see it happening anytime soon. I accept that I've probably missed something, and it's probably there if I go looking again. But for now I'm content to know that 'It's Blitz' turned me from "yeah, yeah yeah..." to "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!"
Track Listing:
1. Zero
2. Heads Will Roll
3. Soft Shock
4. Skeletons
5. Dull Life
6. Shame and Fortune
7. Runaway
8. Dragon Queen
9. Hysteric
10. Little Shadow
If you spring for the Deluxe Edition, you also get acoustic versions of:
11. Soft Shock
12. Skeletons
13. Hysteric
14. Little Shadow
And if you Buy on iTunes, you'll get the exclusive track 'Faces'. If you pre-ordered the album a month ago, you would have also gotten 'Clap Song', but that ship has long since sailed.
And for fans of the red button, Michael Goldberg is streaming 'Zero' here and 'Heads Will Roll' here.
Just a quick post-script from the next day...
I finished writing this some time after midnight last night, posted it and went to bed unhappy with the finished product, but couldn't quite put my finger on why (apart from the fact that what little writing ability I had has gotten very rusty since my son was born.) I finally figured it out on the train this morning, and it's this: I don't think I get the Yeah Yeah Yeahs yet. I've formed an opinion on 'It's Blitz', and from that revised my impression of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but this one album is still not enough for me to understand them. Whether that says more about me or more about them remains to be seen, as does whether or not I'm reading too much into a band I should just enjoy. But I'm enjoying this album, and that's good enough for me, for now.
Comments (9)
yay! it's so refreshing to hear someone praise their new album. i'm totally in LOVE with It's Blitz! in a way that i haven't been with any of their other albums. don't get me wrong, i've been a fan from the beginning. i'm not usually a fan of any indie rock music, but YYYs are the exception (so is Holy Fuck, but that's about it). i think all their music is genius and way more original than anything i've heard in ages. but my favorite YYY tunes are the weirder ones - "Art Star" (my #1 fave and by far the least pop-friendly), their cover of Liars' "Hey Mr. You're On Fire" and such...
i can't wait to hear what you think of the older stuff when you give it another chance. more importantly, keep yr ears open to future releases, coz i have a feeling this isn't the last time this trio will surprise us with a musical detour.
I too like the opener, Zero. I even held out a couple weeks to get the hard copy CD which oddlys came up in my iTunes as an instrumental version. No worries, everything is there - vocals, original versions, etc. but it was just strange. I don't know why it took 2 additional weeks for the CD to be released when iTunes had it up 3 weeks ago!
Actually, I was wondering about the early iTunes release myself. Depending on who you ask, it was brought forward on iTunes to combat the leak (the album's been on filesharing sites since early February), and that was quicker and cheaper than rushing the CDs; or it's a semi-shady deal between the label and Apple to get more folks to buy from iTunes. I'm still clinging desperately to buying CDs where possible.
We'll, that certainly sounds like what happened. My iTunes visualizer that gives me release dates had it at 3/17, so a 3/10 bump would certainly mean an attempt to give iTunes some extra incentive. I feel like Amazon had it available on 3/17 also.
hey john! great review. that's awesome you weren't a fan but are giving them another go.
Originally I had doubts about the new direction and electro sound of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs but I too learned to stop worrying and now I'm digging the new album. Nick is such a renowned guitar player that I thought it's a shame to take away his talents from the album. Alas, It's Blitz sounds so good and Karen O's voice is so luscious I have fallen for this album. They won me over.
This album has an 80s vibe to me -- not as overt as Santogold or Ladyhawke, but there is something happening. In the new Rolling Stone, Karin O says that Jimmy Iovine talked to her about a Blondie like crossover, but she rejected working with Timbaland or something similar. Whatever they decided to do, I like it. One of the year's best so far.
Sorry but 'Fever To Tell' i think will always reign supreme...............
Glad to hear some appreciation for It's Blitz, there are so many out there who are skeptical/suspicious of synthesizers! "Dragon Queen" happens to be my favourite on here. I love, love, love Fever to Tell, and was iffy about Show Your Bones, and I have good vibes about this 'new direction' of theirs :)