090402_ar_CDyyy.c
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
It‘s Blitz!
Interscope
Rating: 4
Despite the “early release“ of Yeah Yeah Yeah‘s third studio album It‘s Blitz! fans are undoubtedly grateful for the refreshing lyrical and audio bliss that Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase present to them on a silver platter made of 100 percent synth-drenched alternative rock.
After recovering from the emotional exhaustion that resulted from 2006‘s Show Your Bones, the band members reconvened in late 2007. O, Zinner and Chase rented out studios across America – in locations such as a dairy farm in Massachusetts and barns in New York and Texas – to focus and write for their next record.
Listening to It‘s Blitz! the first time through, it‘s impossible to deny the brilliance of Zinner‘s dreamy synth melodies, Chase‘s nicely formulated and catchy dance-beats and Karen O‘s soothing, eerie and at times shrill voice. Most tracks on the album feature some if not all of these components to form one awesome synth-dream-dance adventure.
It‘s clear after hearing the entire album that the Yeah Yeah Yeah‘s are capable of creating impressive and inventive music now as they have in the past. However, a couple tracks off It‘s Blitz! lack the lyrical and emotional rush that fans know the band is capable of delivering. The lyrics like “Well it‘s a shock, shock to your soft side/ summer moon/ Catch your shut eyes/ in your room/ in my room“ in “Soft Shock“ don‘t reach the same emotional level as the lyrics from “Maps“ off their debut album Fever to Tell.
Though the Yeah Yeah Yeah‘s challenge themselves by taking a new direction, a good number of the tracks off It‘s Blitz! have similar undertones, such as “Skeletons“ and “Little Shadows.“
It‘s a difficult task for a band to continuously come out with good music throughout the years, but the Yeah Yeah Yeah‘s definitely pulled through.
Side note: Fans of It‘s Blitz! should not read the album review written by Popsense editor Jeffrey Luppino-Esposito (popsense.com). It may cause some anger and/or heartbreak.
Give these tracks a listen: “Hysteric,“ “Soft Shock,“ “Dull Life“
For fans of: TV on the Radio, MGMT
– Simone Wahng
