Major questions (and complaints) about Yeah Yeah Yeahs third full-length will undoubtedly center around the prevalence of synthesizers and various electronics and seeming lack of Brian and Nick’s standard drum and guitar blazes. Icy and fuzzed analog synthesizers and skittering electronic beats do appear on It’s Blitz!, and considering the emphasis usually placed on Zinner’s excellent tones and riffs and Chase’s manic beats, it is startling at first. On repeat listens, though, Karen O’s voice takes command and it becomes clearer that no matter what’s going on around her, she can still make heads roll. Or, more apropos of It’s Blitz!, make you dance til you’re dead.
You’ve likely heard the first two tracks, “Zero” and “Heads Will Roll.” If you hated both, there’s still a chance you’ll like It’s Blitz!. You’ll just have to accept the instrumental shifts and move on. “Soft Shock,” the track that follows the pair, is a softer but still bouncy piece. It also feels less Berlin, 1989 than “Heads.” It’s followed by the pulsing, balladic “Skeletons,” where O takes on her “Maps” tone over spare martial drums (and some drum sticks tapping) and an upswing of an army of keys. “Dull Life” keeps the dark, quiet feel — somehow Western noir — but then blasts into something where O can shout and stomp while Zinner clicks into a sharp guitar part and Chase is Chase. The next track, “Shame and Fortune,” keeps it sweaty, seamlessly blending the old and new strains into a dense rock ‘n’ roll strut.
You get these moments of more old-school YYYs, yes, but there really isn’t anything to crack eggs on Blitz! beyond. Still, it’s not easy listening. It can be quiet or muted — like the lovely, catchy piano-lined “I’d like you stay” song “Runaway” or the soaring “suddenly you complete me” power ballad “Hysteric” — but put on some headphones and pull on the various Sitek-produced sonic threads. It’s maybe the band’s most complex effort compositionally. The dance-floor funk of “Dragon Queen” (with TVOTR’s Tunde and Kyp) is maybe a bit whatever, unless it’s past 2 a.m. and you’re wasted and clubbing, but by and large, the transformation works. It helps that it’s followed by the immediately infectious “Hysteric” and the wispy, downcast closer “Little Shadow,” featuring Imaad Wasif on guitar, which like a good torch song, climbs into the stratosphere by the time it ends.
It’s Blitz! is a better listen than Show Your Bones and makes sense as a dark, but looser followup to the more intense, tightly coiled Is Is EP (give “Down Boy” a bank of synthesizers, for instance). Sure, it’s not Fever To Tell, but it’s not (at all) trying to be, so anyone expecting that should build themselves a time machine and try to recall what Liars sounded like during that same period. Things change, people change. (Remember Adore?) Yeah Yeah Yeahs have transformed their sound, yes, but they haven’t lost much (beyond those guitars, natch) in the process. They still sound like a real band.
It’s Blitz! is out 4/13 via Interscope.
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tits
I feel that this review is almost too true; too real. It’s sums up what my mind says but not my cock.
Well now, Mr. Tilla, what does your cock say?
Why not a Premature Evaluation about an album which hasn’t leaked yet? I always see the awesome albums which are on “Heavy Rotation” and i’m constantly asking myself “Are they any good?” (the new PBJ for example…
I think it’s better that they wait for the leak so that we can all chime in.
agreed this YYYs album is awesome btw
It seems impossible to find an album that has not leaked several months in advanced, as long as they post their evaluation some good time before the official release (and all the “serious” publications chip in) it’s all good.
It actually increases the chances that we’ll read it!
Agree with this other reply, people can actually comment with some level of coherence.
i like the album very very much
the synths change there sound but i actually think it suits the band well
The album was different, but i by no means thought that the difference was bad. I’ve been listening to it on repeat all day and there have been several moments where i’ve had to pause my life just to let out how great i think this album is with a little booty shaken
.
oh and … who the fuck cares about your cock donny? yuck.
Well Danielle, if you got your mind out of the gutter you would realize the thought behind my post; I don’t simply come on here and blurt out anything that comes to mind – I mean, what am I? An idiot? Anyway, what I was trying to convey (which obviously passed over your head) was that this album appeals to my mind, or rationality. It is an appropriate step for the band, I love the electronic feel, and who wants a rehash of any old YYYs? Not me daniella, i like things fresh, new, exciting. HOWEVER, when listening to fever to tell or is is there is something sexual and exciting and thrilling about those albums and songs, not to mention KO’s general sexual presence not only on stage but in her vocals on both those albums – thus representing the failure to activate my inner sexual excitement or “cock” if you know what i’m saying.
holla
only song im not too crazy about is shame and fortune and runaway. runaway is a bore untill like the last minute. dragon queen is ok… but i do like her mouth touching my mouth
exactly – its mouth to mouth and its hot.
after first listen, it is pretty enjoyable. its a good mixture of songs
i think this album is pretty great. regardless of their deviation from previous work.
Ouch, nice Adore jab. Don’t hear those very often.
“Arcane night music” indeed. Still, in retrospect one of the Pumpkin’s better albums.
..love the new album. is it wrong to love show your bones too? cuz i really do love that album too…yeah..
if this was there first alum would i like them as much?
no.
will this album be a flop?
no.
do i fully develop my thoughts before i comment?
no.
should i stop typing now?
yes.
at least try to be funny – sounds like something a self-deprecating seth cohen would say (OC reference).
Comments like this make me wonder wtf happened to this place
well ugh, if you’re the past i would say things have gotten much better.
should i have said that sentence?
yes.
would i say it again?
yes.
should i stop typing?
yes,
the album’s a perfectly natural progression from show your bones.
Never listened to YYY but might have to. That is one of my favorite album covers ever!
SPIN has them on their March cover, behind the scenes vid can be seen here:
http://spin.com/articles/exclusive-yeah-yeah-yeahs-spin-photo-shoot
the album HAS leaked
so those who haven’t heard it yet, go find it.
YES! It’s about time, and they sound better than evs.
I’m okay with It’s Blitz! although I think the title is misleading. Show Your Bones was tits and heaps more memorable on first listen than this. I guess I shouldn’t have expected Show You Bones 2, but hey, a guy can dream.
Show Your Bones >>>>>>>>>>> It’s Blitz
i know this is annoying but………
i just started a blog for the first time and i dont know how else to tell people about it
please just take a look http://www.pandasnare.blogspot.com
if nothing else just go there for the link to the It’s Blitz leak
Sorry, but this album sucks ass. YYYs have gone soft.
I agree…the yyy’s have gone hot butter soft….but i still have it for them….
I have given this record a few listens, and it just sounds faceless, like a million other bands. Zinner is almost muffled completely, suffocated by synths. There is nothing even remotely touching a song with an attack like “Phenomenon” or “Date With the Night” on here. The song with the piano is unlistenable. This is awful, although I am willing to try a few more times and see what is revealed to me. But count me as sorely disappointed so far.
to any of you who are gaylorded enough to complain about the new sound: stop your retard whining and catch them on tour this year. they won’t let only synths carry the new songs live.
Karen O is sexy so I”ll buy anything she puts out.
This is really fun! I like it much more than I thought I would.
Karen O is a great rock singer. on a related note I always wonder if the premature evaluations are from official copies sent to stereogum?
I likez it. Unexpected. But I love the new U2 album so I’m already a pariah to most of the fuckwads who drop rage bombs ’round here.
This album is going to be huge. a really good pop album. for sure.
It would be incredible if every commenter on this site was required to include his age next to his name…. that would probably help explain a lot of these dumbass posts (I’m 23 years old)
hate this, why do people like synths????, does anybody remember how like 5 years ago we would have made fun of this 80′s shit, how easily we forget……I want guitars back
Does anyone remember 5 years ago when you followed the trends that magazines/zines arbitrarily decided to shove at us? Let’s do it again now that 80′s revival has become uncool…again
not that this sounds like 80′s revival anyway…
This is what happens when you let women make the decisions in bands, it sucks big time
please leave sexist comments , she did an amazing job, they change with every album they release, and i for one, think that anyone is capable of making music, man or woman, prick
lol i can almost agree with sitek. karen o already messed up during the times of Show Your Bones when she let herself get swept up in all that romance with her then boyfriend and let him help with the album
i DEFINITELY prefer more guitar and drums, and not those stupid synths but im still excited about It’s Blitz! When I first heard “Zero” and “Heads Will Roll” i was angry and disappointed. Then, I listened to it again. I played it at a party i was at, turning up my speakers as loud as they could go, and the songs took on a whole new sound! This is going to be an album to DANCE to and i can’t wait to hear the whole thing and go to a YYYs show
http://bonafidewithheadphones.blogspot.com/
Yeah, Fever To Tell is definitely better and Show Your Bones is probably better, but this is going to be really big, right? This album is catchy as hell.
Whatever, I still think Karen O should be deepthroating microphones like back in the “Art Star” days. That first EP is fucking incredible.
It’s Blitz! is awesome, but I would have loved more of a mix of guitars and synths rather than just go with the synths altogether. It’s a dance album and that’s ok because it’s the trend right now, but they still could have mixed it up. Take out K.O.’s vocals and this would sound like just another dance album out there. They didn’t need to stray from their sound to make a complete dance album… just listen to “Y Control”. I loved the loud echoes of K.O’s voice mixed in with hard drums and guitars on “Maps” on Fever To Tell. A ballad like that is very hard to emulate or top, but I really wished that this album had more of that. I mean, just imagine some awesome guitar rifts to go with the marching melody on “Skeletons”… that would have been pretty sweet!
This should be No No No because there’s no basketball playing at all on this Album. I’d love if they made an album called Sesame Chicken Blitz. I’d also love if someone made me some Sesame Chicken.
is it too premature to say that it’s the best Y^3 album to date?
I thought New Wave was dead.
I won’t lie, I am a little bit disappointed, even after 5 or 6 listens all the way through. I am a huge YYYs fan but I have a slight aversion to synthesizers and drum-machines. I love them for their sludgier shoutier noisier stuff… this is all a little too clean, calm and collected for me. I am sure that those who like snythy stuff will love this, though.
No longer the Yeah Yeah Yeahs It’s No No Nos now.
Let’s say for a second that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, each of them different from ours, and that we could find a way a travel to them. The next question we should ask ourselves is: Was Yuck’s comment funny in any of them?
If I remember ‘Adore’? Yeah, unfortunately.
‘It’s blitz’ is Donna Summer + Joy Division – originality and/or real and/or impact. Disappointing.
“the song with the piano” is not unlistenable… Runaway is great. If you don’t like the album then listen to something else. like someone said, remember the Liars? heh. Yeah its been almost ten years…. stop Livin in the past! i cant wait to see these songs live. Karen’s voice is (in soft shock, especially) remarkable. Only complaint I have is that the crowds at these shows have become over every tour, a lot more lifeless. Hope this changes it cause at Show Yer Bones show no one was moving, just all watching and singing.
If Fever to Tell was the most exciting album I’d heard in years, Show Yer Bones was the most disappointing.
> You’ll just have to accept the instrumental shifts and move on.
I tried that on Show Yer Bones… it didn’t stand up. Is Is EP got me to thinking that maybe they finally got their heads on straight… but alas…
I know I sound like an idiot, but I can’t tell what the album cover is of. Can someone explain?
It seems to be Karen O’s hand in front of a white wall, and in it she has crushed something which can only be described as an egg. Most likely of the chicken variety.
Also, and i may sound like an idiot, but i think there might be three Y’s in it. Two of them are made by the egg splatterings above her hand. They’re divided by the yolk. And then she’s making a Y with the three exposed painted fingers. I mean seriously, who crushes an egg like that?
again, everyone who says this record sucks because it has synthesizers is full of cock (in their mouths). after i heard sealings on the spiderman 3 soundtrack, and then most of the isis ep, i thought i had a pretty good idea of what was coming with this record, but i had no idea – it’s fucking great and gets better with each listen
it’s atmospheric and then it rocks and then it’s dance-y and dull life is probably the best song they’ve ever written and there are a few ballads which never seem to be contrite or cheesy – typical high-point fare for this band
therefore anyone who liked the tv on the radio record but somehow hates this knows nothing about what they like or dislike – don’t be stupid
Ta Det Lugnt,
What comes out of Karen O. while masturbating?
“It’s Jizz!”
JIZZ JIZZ JIZZ JIZZ
I think the song “Hysteric” is so amazing. YYYs really tend to shine on the slower, more melodic tracks. I think I responded to this album a lot more than Show Your Bones.
In high school The YYY’s were one of my favorite bands. They were number one for a good 6 months. In fact, if it weren’t for the YYY’s i would never have listened to so much of the garage rock that i love. They helped me better understand organic music as well, but this album doesn’t seem organic at all.
I don’t mind dance music or electronic music, but i never wanted the yeah yeah yeahs to do it. I expect this album to grow on me, just because i respect the band so much, but i honestly don’t like it. It doesn’t feel like a new sound for them, or anyone for that matter. I guess i can only listen to a drum machine for so long before my ears get fed up. And Is Is was sooo good and exciting because it seemed they were holding onto their garage roots.
I guess what i’m saying is that i’ll just listen to dull life on repeat for three years until the next one comes out.
it seems like you’ve not really grown at all since high school. i think that its funny how frustrated people get when an artist decides to go in a different direction. if you want a band to play the same song for 10 years you should listen to oasis
I’m not wanting Yeah Yeah Yeahs to write the same kind of songs all the time.
I really like Show your bones, especially songs like Warrior and The Sweets because it showed another sound they could have. With this album, i just don’t think it feels as much like an evolution. It’s more like change for the sake of change alone.
Also i think it boils down to personal preference. If i was a big fan of electronic/dance music, like plenty of YYY fans are, I might be perfectly fine with this.
i like you
Ive listened to this CD several times now. Yes. Its good. NO. Its not great. This has been the single most disappointing CD i have heard in ages. I adore Fever to Tell, Show Your Bones, and IS IS. So you can imagine my elation when I heard that one of my favorites band was releasing a new CD. When they put up that splash page with the eye in the mouth, I shit my pants. I couldn’t wait to hear an album that sounded like that image. Then we got a track list which was even more drool worthy. Every song sounded like it could be visceral and exciting. Then i acquired the CD. . . .It just doesn’t feel right. Nothing about it mirrors the band I love so. Once more, I cant possibly shun this because i have SO much respect for them. It will just NOT be heavily rotated in my collection.
They definitely should’ve just turned the first 5 songs into another EP.
After listening to this album a couple of times, it just sounds like a new direction that’s all. If you aren’t a fan of this new style then you miss out and that’s that. They do a decent job at it and this album has some solid songs. Now if only they would announce some shows to go to I’d be a happy YYY fan.
makes me not want to eat eggs
You sound like SUCH a fucking fanboy/girl right now
I don’t think anyone can seriously believe that this album isn’t going to make this band huge rock stars.
It is fine for a band to change its sound for example the soft bulletin radical change but the songs were not Imitation madonna that sounded like it took as long to program them as it does listening to them
The first time I heard it I thought it was disappointing and that I wouldnt even buy it.
By the 10th listen, i’m convinced it will be my album of the year.