Digital Release: 3/10/09
Physical Release: 3/31/09
Effin hot. This album kicks ass. I would like to take a minute out to thank the YYY for being consistently awesome on every album. So many artists score badly on their sophomore release, hit the slump, and then on the third release put out a mediocre attempt at correcting the former. Not the YYY. They did a solid job of keeping it rockin’ on every album, and they make a point to do something different. No one can argue that Fever To Tell (the raw and vocally explicit album that this blog is named after) is not some kind of art, punk, rock masterpiece. When Show Your Bones came out in 2006, I believe that most of us were expecting more screaming and wailing from Ms. O, and more screeching guitar murder from Nick, but what we found was something more sophisticated and controlled, but still as emotionally biting as the first. Now, with their third album they have incorporated a bit more of the synth sound that has become so popular in today’s indie/alt music scene. While there is still a hard edge to some tracks, other tracks feature more of a softer sound with ethereal whimsy.
Tracks like ” Zero”, “Heads Will Roll“, and “Dragon Queen” are 80’s reminiscent, while tracks like “Dull Life”, “Hysteric”, and “Little Shadow” harken back to the previous sound (especially the track “Skeletons” which is like the film version of Titanic doing a rednition of “Maps”. You’ll see). While everything else is kind of in between, and in a really neat new way, it is this combination of old signature plus new influence that every band tries to achieve. Check out the track “Shame and Fortune” to hear a bass line that echoes Suicide’s “Ghostrider“. If you can imagine Suicide inviting Karen O to a disco party, then you pretty much got this album down pat. Pepper in some pathos, and you have the full vision. This album is so good, and such an accomplishment for a band that started as a basement art/punk outfit. Originally, the band was using music as another medium to express their art. They had no intentions of becoming a rock band. What has come out of their organic union has no officially become the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and It’s Blitz! is a triumph of nature.
Favorite Tracks: “Dull Life”, “Hysteric”, and “Heads Will Roll”
Don’t Miss: “Zero”, “Shame and Fortune” and “Skeletons”
Check Out the Album. Click this link for It’s Blitz!
One guarantee I can make is that “Zero” will be in a commercial or film very soon.
