Oh look! It's the Rock Chick, the Goth, and--thanks to being in a band with two stereotypes--the one who is often mistaken for a nerd! Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back with a new, shiny, slightly anachronistic dance rock style that the critics are just jizzing themselves over. A band that in the past could do no wrong critically, the adoration for Yeah Yeah Yeahs has grown so rampant--and my own feelings about It's Blitz! have been so lukewarm--that I feel something about my taste is even more askew than previously supposed. I just can't love It's Blitz!, and it's not like I haven't been trying. I cannot hate it either, however, because I know the band has got talent and I've still got a soft spot for Brian Chase.
It's rare that an album enraptures me from the very first listen, so I've been extra patient with this, listening to it in many different settings and moods. I'm up to my fifth or sixth listen by now and in an insular state at the moment, and still, nothing. The only songs that have really aroused me enough to want to queue them up over and over are the first two tracks--"Zero" and "Heads Will Roll"--two songs I absolutely hated on first listen. Multiple listenings have caused the tables to turn in other ways as well, as I had completely forgotten about and was taken aback my initial favorite track, "Dragon Lady," when it shimmied into my ears on this latest listen. Most of the tracks in between had just plain been forgotten about.
Yet, I wouldn't necessarily tag "Zero" and "Heads Will Roll" with loving adjectives and praises. The epic roller disco outro to "Zero" still makes me hang my head and moan into my hands "Whatever happened to my Yeah Yeah Yeahs?" each time I hear it. I don't really see how the command to "Dance 'til you're dead" in "Heads Will Roll" is that different from ordering a listener to party 'til they puke. Similarly, "Hysteric" is one of the album's stronger songs, but we've all heard that "You suddenly complete me" line before, and we don't care to be reminded where. Herein lies my main problem with the album; I fail to hear much freshness in either the sound or the sentiments. Dancing is fun and lovely, we all know that, I just feel It's Blitz is largely not expressing this in a very intriguing way.
In spite of my complaints, I don't necessarily want Yeah Yeah Yeahs to return to the beer-spitting, two-instrument noisiness of the Fever to Tell days. If I took It's Blitz! at face value, I'd probably like it. Nor do I find the stylistic leap all that jarring; the progression from Show Your Bones to this isn't exactly the span of the Williamsburg bridge.
In order for Yeah Yeah Yeahs to keep going, it was almost mandatory that they evolve their sound. I just feel they could have taken a more creative route than stockpiling vintage synthesizers, which they then strapped to some fabulous disco mule. Another band that started out with a scuzz-rock sound and then applied some beats to it is The Kills, whose Midnight Boom is still scuzzy and sexy, but also mature; and I'd rather listen to it any day than It's Blitz. Sorry.
Level of Disappointment (scale of 1--10; 1=not disappointing at all; 10=extremely disappointing): 6; To be honest, after Show Your Bones I really wasn't expecting much. And, yeah, the album cover is awesome and gives good warning that the album may have a New Order bent.
Watch: Yeah Yeah Yeahs on Jools Holland--"Heads Will Roll"
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