It's Blitz! But the Yeah Yeah Yeahs fumbled
Written: Mar 29 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Half (though there isn't a single 100% great song).
Cons: Half (there is one 100% awful song).
The Bottom Line: wishes they still had a fever to tell.
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| updateghost's Full Review: It's Blitz! by Yeah Yeah Yeahs |
There's no hype as useless as "self-re-imagination" hype. Often, when a band's newest record is only a few weeks away, it is marketed by interviews and street teams as "going in a new direction," being "revolutionary" or "ground-breaking." This was precisely what has happened with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' latest, It's Blitz!, as if the disappointing generic-indie-complacency of their sophomore release Show Your Bones wasn't enough.
When It's Blitz!'s first single, "Zero," booms into your speakers, these claims about such a re-imagination seem true indeed. Nick Zinner's guitar pounds forth with the type of distortion that makes you think "Hm, 80s," but you don't really know why, and then Brian Chase arrives with the drums, and you think, "Aw, yeah, definitely 80s" (even though you still don't know why). Then "Heads Will Roll" plays, and you realize that the "re-imagination" crud was just that: crud.
It's Blitz! ultimately plays as a hybrid of their debut's fierce art-rock and Show Your Bones' non-ambition. This works both for and against the record throughout. The aforementioned opening tracks are brave and well-composed, fulfilling our expectations of the YYYs' capabilities. Some songs, such as "Skeletons" and "Runaway," are gratingly aware of their own beauty but contain enough striking moments (particularly the strings on the latter) to impress us. The album's most daring moment, "Dull Life," is vulgar and grimy, but lovable for all its risks and surprises.
But outside of these five semi-gems, we find the YYYs too often stepping into the same languid self-satisfaction that plagued most of Show Your Bones. "Soft Shock" is pleasant, surely, but it only lives up to the first word in its title, lacking any dynamic and never stepping outside of its box. "Hysteric" and particularly "Little Shadow" sound like every other last two tracks on every other album that you've heard, signaling, "Hey, this is the end of the record, so we're going to take things nice and slow and not do anything with this peaceful, pretty song." Then there are bombs like "Dragon Queen," a turgid could-be-remake of Led Zeppelin's equally turgid "The Crunge," so much that you can almost hear Karen O yelling, "Where's that confounded bridge?"
After the goodwill of the Is Is EP, it's unfortunate to see the YYYs step back into the same smugness that has bogged down so many of their songs, especially after the endless replay value and precision of Fever to Tell. Giving listeners only five good tracks out of ten isn't any way to make a memorable record. You'd think being three albums into their career, they would know that by now.
Grade: C+
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
updateghost
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Member: Tom Speaker
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