ALBUM: YEAH YEAH YEAHS // IT’S BLITZ!

ALBUM REVIEW: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
words: Christian Ritter

I like The Killers’ ‘Day & Age’. I like Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’. I’m sure I would have even loved it if I was alive when Bob Dylan went electric. Therefore I am not one to disown a band as soon as they do anything remotely different, which, it could be argued, is what Yeah Yeah Yeahs have done with their third effort. They may lose a few fans with their new, mature album ‘It’s Blitz!’, but those that deride them for “selling out” are the sort of fans who any self-respecting rock band should not care for anyway.

The title of YYY’s third effort is somewhat confusing, ‘It’s Blitz!’ would be far more suited to their 2003 debut of heart attack inducing two minute songs containing plenty of animalistic shrieks and crunching guitar sounds. This album is certainly different from debut ‘Fever to Tell’, and cannot make its mind up. The opening two tracks, ‘Zero’ and ‘Heads Will Roll’ sound more disco than anything you can find that doesn’t have a “feat.” in its title and cannot be found on a compilation in Tesco with the word “EUPHORIA” on the cover.

However, the album slips into relative obscurity with a couple of forgettable tracks that bear more in resemblance to the non descript ‘Down Boy’ of the EP, ‘Is Is’. No one would deny that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs can’t write a good slower-paced song, just look at the success of ‘Maps’. However, it is with relief that the quick and catchy (and nothing like its title) ‘Dull Life’ appears on the album’s track listing. Unfortunately though, the fact remains that while Karen O and co. have proven in the past that they have proficient enough song writing skills to not be pigeon holed simply as “angry”, it is likely that the majority of people who listen to this album will crave for just a sense of the band who wrote ‘Tick’.

‘It’s Blitz!’ is by no means a bad album. It’s just that it would be so much better if the slick beats of the opening tracks were present throughout the album’s progression, listeners are promised so much in the beginning, tricked into not switching cds with ‘Show Your Bones’ in the middle, but ultimately feel disappointed by the end. I repeat, I’m not one to disown a band for doing anything remotely outside their normal repertoire, however, if the result of such diversification is not worth listening to, why change in the first place?