Yeah Yeah Yeahs preserve their individuality

Today when it has been already nine years since the art punk trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs foundation, the names of Karen O, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner are known to all the fans of its original, powerful and stunningly contagious music. On its sophomore effort, 2006’s Show Your Bones the band has definitely made a significant leap forward softening a little bit the heavy punk sound of the debut Fever To Tell, improving all the aspects in the respect of music and demonstrating a more serious and deeper approach to work. Successfully proving that the second album can be better than the debut one Yeah Yeah Yeahs got to the number of the world’s most popular bands so there has been much more people around the globe waiting for its third record. At last, three years later, the album It's Blitz! makes the spring coming even more beautiful and proves that if a band is different from the others from the very beginning the main thing for it is to preserve its individuality all way long, which Yeah Yeah Yeahs have definitely done giving the world an excellent mixture of disco, pop rock and alt punk on It's Blitz!

An endless variety of moods, melodies and tunes on It's Blitz!

Although It's Blitz! is different from its two predecessors one seems to remains unchangeable with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, i.e. an endless variety of moods, melodies and tunes and images from one track into another. The album opens just faultlessly from the composition Zero demonstrating at once in what a wonderful form Karen O and her friends are. This stylish, memorable rebuff to a looser guy will sound appropriate both in a night club and in your headphones and its contagious chorus is sure to linger in your mind for several weeks. A heavier number Heads Will Roll at first reminds of the early The Prodigy but it quickly becomes clear that this is undoubtedly a Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ song: complicated multilayered guitars and drums combine perfectly with O’s tense vocals and the pop music elements make the song different from the band’s other suchlike songs. Quite the opposite is the track Soft Shock, containing unusual effects uniting in a inimitable melody and Karen’s vocals here is rather reminiscent of Bjork meeting Sinead O’Connor. The same goes about a slow space song Skeletons conquering not only with a wonderful arrangement with electronic elements but also with the best metaphoric lyrics on the album. On Shame And Fortune the trio has obviously decided to demonstrate the best each of the members is capable of doing – musically this is certainly one of the best tracks in the band’s history. Another highlight is Dragon Queen, a sensual pop tune completely different from the earlier aggressive songs as well as a most beautiful composition Hysteric not justifying its title. The record closes with the softest and most peaceful song Little Shadow on which Karen forgets that she once founded a punk band for some minutes and opens her sensual chanteuse’s side to us.

A lively music, real and full of emotions

It goes without saying that indie culture obtained a lot when such a shining collective as Yeah Yeah Yeahs appeared in it. The trio performs quite actively and never failed to sell out the tickets and with the release of It's Blitz! the number of those willing to be present at its live performance will surely become several times larger. The point is that the new album contains a lot more interesting reflective and relatively tranquil tracks than the New Yorkers first two creations. Perhaps some may think it strange because we are mainly used to hear Karen’s loud tense vocals and a powerful rock sound of guitars and drum kit. Yet there is no doubt that the slow song son It's Blitz! deserve no less attention that more intensive ones. As for the lyrics some more sincere love stories have appeared along with tough bold tracks not devoid of sense of humor. It is hard to tell what surprise Yeah Yeah Yeahs is going to make us next time but one thing is clear: whichever changes this trio is about to bring in its music it is sure to prove the same lively, real and full of emotions as on It's Blitz!

Alexandra Zachernovskaya
11.03.2009