The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new album, It’s Blitz, is party. Party for the club, party for the house, party for walking down the street, party in my pants. Party. Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, National vs. Labour party, block party, arty farty party, hearty party, smarty party. You know, like, party party.
Of course, the YYYs were always party; their debut album, 2003’s Fever to Tell was too, but also, well, feverish. The sweaty, sexy, hot kind of fever. Karen O’s voice—one moment drippy, the next shrieking—atop frenetic guitars and crashing drums combined to create an undeniable punk aesthetic, yet retaining the catchy choruses characteristic of pop. It was an album both loud and listenable—a delicate balance. Some critics claimed the scales tipped during the YYY’s second album Show Your Bones (2006), an album similar in vision, but softer, catchier, perhaps weaker.
It’s Blitz replaces Fever to Tell’s grittiness with snappy clapping sounds, pulsing beats and drum machines. The guitars are gone, but my thoughts lie not with what is missing, but what has been added: synth. And lots of it. Beautiful beautiful synth. The opening track, ‘Zero,’ is the most danceable, a song so anthemic that two years from now I will associate it with the year 2009, along with an imagined montage, of course. ‘Zero’ has an 80s aesthetic, zappy laser sounds that transcend cheesiness as a result of the integrity inherent in Karen O’s voice.
But It’s Blitz is not all just a dance in my pants. Some of the synthy-est songs are simply too slow in tempo to warrant a boogie. ‘Soft Shock’ for example—the sort of song which will be stuck in your head for days on end, but delightfully so. Particularly notable to this track are the chorus embellishments that sound like warped violins. Details such as this are what push the album from good to awesome—just when you think you’ve figured it out, the YYYs throw in an intrepid detail that pulls you in for more.
But the party will eventually end. And the YYYs have, ever so thoughtfully, provided for this inevitability with acoustic versions of ‘Soft Shock’, ‘Skeletons’, ‘Hysteric’, and ‘Little Shadow’. The perfect songs to accompany a raging hangover, while reminiscing about the night before and all of the stupid shit you never would have done while sober. These songs epitomise the word ‘acoustic’, with pretty strings, gentle folksy vocals and some tambourine thrown in to make the prettiest music soup I ever done tasted.
Okay, I do miss the old Yeah Yeah Yeahs a little bit—the raw energy and manic life bubbling beneath the surface, but this new stuff is great too. Just different. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs know their audience and know that to remain successful they needed to move on. The past isn’t gone, but the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are certainly looking towards the future. Rocket in the sky party, moon party, robotz party. Rawr.