I have been a fan of Yeah Yeah Yeahs since their first album. I love the energy, I love the pop sensibility, and after catching them at First Avenue once, I LOVE Karen O. I mean, for my money, she’s this current generation’s greatest female performer. Others may be able to sing better, but her stage presence is simply astonishing.
It was therefore with great joy that I gave their new album It’s Blitz a first listen. I was not disappointed, and in fact found that the album brought a level of maturity and sophistication to their work without sacrificing any of the energy or compelling nature of their earlier work. Karen O proves herself to be a far more versatile vocalist than she has previously demonstrated and the synth-pop/dance-driven direction the album has taken works remarkably well.
There is so much trend-chasing going on these days in music and the whole “bring back the 80’s FM-synthesis” trend is driving me crazy. Most of the 80’s synth music sucked. Yes, there was some good stuff, but a generally accurate barometer of the quality of a song is “how much frakking DX-7 appears on the damn thing?” with “None” being the preferred answer. Lately it seems that every time I turn around somebody is “going synth” and I usually don’t like it much. In this case I am brought to mind of Bis and their album “Social Dancing”, not because It’s Blitz sounds like that album (it doesn’t) but because it’s a band with a nice punky background going into the whole dance-synth arena and saying, “see, we can do this too without chasing any silly 80’s trends”.
The album starts off with “Zero”, which features the band in full Pretenders mode and Karen sounding a decent amount like Chrissie Hynde. It’s an enjoyable song and likely to be a radio hit but if the entire album was like this I would get bored pretty fast. Track 2, “Heads Will Roll”, clearly continues the dance-floor friendly vibe and builds up impressively from it’s initial beginning through the song. This one really brought Social Dancing to mind for me. Track 3, “Soft Shock” is faintly balladesque and for some reason I found reminiscent of Achtung Baby U2 meets The Cars. If I were to just sit and listen to any of these tracks in isolation I might be tempted to write them off but the whole thing flows really well as an album and by the time track 4, “Skeletons”, rolled around I was really enjoying it. “Skeletons” is another softer song that really brought to mind U2 again. It has such an Irish feel to it and makes you feel like you’re standing on a windswept open plain. Considering that the album begins as a synth-pop dance record, it’s amazing how gracefully it brings you into different musical territory.
Lest you forget who you are listening to, however, track 5 “Dull Life” comes in slow but kicks in and reminds you that these are the fucking Yeah Yeah Yeahs, not U2. Again, good example of pacing the record. Track 6 is nice and aggressive and actually made me think a bit of the first Clan of Xymox record (with a little Warm Jets Eno thrown in there) in places. That, in case you were wondering, is a good thing. Then, strangely on track 7 “Runaway”, they get pretty and a bit theatrical. Im talking about chorused guitars, clean piano, cellos, ambient sounds, and Karen singing plaintively. It’s a great little song that seems like it could be a minor hit for them as well.
In case you’ve been paying attention, there is a bit of a pattern to this record. It seems to go from dancey to softer to something that kicks a little ass. The pattern begins again with “Dragon Queen”, although they’re dance inspiration here seems to be Talking Heads. I could totally see David Byrne doing this song. It has an uber-funky groove and if you don’t want to dance listening to it, you’re dead. Go bury yourself. Then, 9 and 10, take you out with a couple of mellower tracks.
Overall, great flow, some kick ass bits, some pretty bits, some dancey bits, and a genuinely enjoyable first/second listen. We’ll have to see how it wears over time.
