Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz! (Deluxe Ed.) Review

Posted by Jes Tones on 03.19.2009

New Yeah Yeah Yeahs album scheduled for April release leaked online in February, pushing digital release date to March 10 and in store release to March 31—should you be running out to grab this latest-“inspired by the ‘70s disco collaborations between Italian producer Giorgio Moroder and…Donna Summer, Joy Division, and, well, Karen O’s love of dancing”-album?

Whoa, what the F is this?! There’s just no other way to convey my initial reaction to this album. This is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, afterall—I was expecting a crazy, loud, screeching, thumping, guitar-driven rock out. Even the album title has an exclamation point, this alone is often enough to get me worked up…as in: “rock!” Not to mention the cover art….



You can imagine my surprise when instead I felt as though I’d somehow stumbled into a new wave dance party. Again: What the F —? I played the first track (and single) and suddenly I was dodging disco balls and images of Karen O as the new dancing queen of gay men everywhere. Could this one- (actually, two-)time “Sex Goddess” (according to Spin magazine) of rock be morphing into the newest club goddess, à la Cher, Madonna, or (gasp!) Britney? I’d always kind of thought of Karen O as the punk rock rebuttal to the overstuffed dance-dance divas. A little overdone at times, yes, but ultimately badass. But now, for the first time, what I had always regarded as “edgy” wardrobe, makeup and dance ensembles suddenly seemed eerily akin to the drag queen ethos…could it be?

Track Listing:
1. Zero
2. Heads Will Roll
3. Soft Shock
4. Skeletons
5. Dull Life
6. Shame and Fortune
7. Runaway
8. Dragon Queen
9. Hysteric
10. Little Shadow
11. Soft Shock (Acoustic)*
12. Skeletons (Acoustic)*
13. Hysteric (Acoustic)*
14. Little Shadow (Acoustic)*
15. Faces+
[16. Clap Song (Pre-Order Only - not reviewed)]
* Deluxe version only
+ iTunes exclusive

The slight panic attack described above lasted roughly 12 minutes—that is, until track 4 (“Skeletons”). I’m telling you, this is what club music (a/k/a tracks 1-3) does to me—I felt like a crazy person. Then, as an interlude of sorts, “Skeletons” comes along and we go from the over-synthesized, pounding likes of “Heads Will Roll” (“off, off, off with your head!…dance, dance, dance ‘til your dead!”) to a slow and melodic, yet still synthetic and somewhat obtuse track with background instrumentation that, I kid you not, reminded me of one of the songs from the “Titanic” soundtrack. Still, “Skeletons” manages to sllllooooow it down and effectively (if not quite pleasantly) lure you back into the album as if to say “ok, the hard part’s over, relax, now you can enjoy the ride.”

“Dull Life” and “Shame and Fortune” (tracks 6 and 7, respectively) are somewhat surprisingly (at this point) pretty classic, rocking, YYYs-sounding tunes, although Shame does lean a little bit toward the dance-dance side and neither one sufficiently boosts the album thus far to make you stop wanting the last 25 minutes of your life back. Then another strange interlude, “Runaway,” comes along, starting off slow and sweet with Karen O’s vocals layered over a simple piano sequence, followed by an orchestral-type build up that sucked me right in, leaving me relaxed and, well, a little confused, but quickly forgetting how annoyed I was just 5 short minutes ago.

Then, just when I thought we were making progress, we’re back at the club with “Dragon Queen” and I am lost, struggling to remember what band I am even listening to and why my neck is jerking my head back and forth in such an awkward and unnatural manner. But before I could even sufficiently ponder the image of Karen O “out clubbin’” in “Dragon Queen,” “Hysteric” interrupted my thoughts and I very clearly remember actually stopping on the street the first time I heard it in order to pull out my iPod and mark this song with “5 stars” so as not to forget it. Again, “Hysteric” does not sound like the YYYs to me—Karen O sounds (dare I say it?) sweet and almost poetic. There is still this floaty dancehall-ish background, but somehow it works here. I was no longer annoyed, but rather…calm, but not quite sleepy.

Then came the lullaby: “Little Shadow” (and this isn’t even the acoustic version—just wait ‘til you get to track 14, if you shelled out the dough for the “deluxe” edition, that is). This and the next 4 songs (which are acoustic tracks found only on the “deluxe” version of the album) are actually somewhat of a procession of lovely, slow and sweet lullabies, winding down the album as though closing up shop for the night. Again, very surprising—who would’ve thought I’d be describing a YYYs song as “sweet”? The acoustic tracks are all alternate versions of previous songs on the album and are such an improvement, I couldn’t help but think that maybe these were the original recordings and that some rogue DJ had illegitimately created a dance club remix, otherwise known as the beginning of the album.

This would be the perfect ending, however, the deluxe version on iTunes (only) actually ends with “Faces,” which picks up the speed again for no good reason and would actually make much more sense placed somewhere between (what I refer to as) interlude #1 and interlude #2. It’s OK, but not really necessary.

Track 1, “Zero,” is currently streaming on YouTube (see below) and the band’s website and I can’t help but think of Michael Jackson every time I watch it. The video itself is entertaining enough to make the song tolerable, but ultimately it’s just not enough to rescue it from the “forgettable” pile for me. In most of the trio’s recent interviews they spent most of their collective breath talking about how “different” this (the band’s third full length) album would sound, how guitarist Nick Zinner was prodded to set aside his guitar and try his hand(s) on some vintage synths, how the music is “spacey” because they did all this writing in big, open rural “spaces”—etc., etc., etc. (yeah, yeah, yeah, if you will). Kudos to them for being fresh and new and adventurous and all that. All I’m saying is, clearly there’s a lot of talent in this band, which I already knew, but the direction they’ve moved in with this album is not for me.

Just incase you’re wondering…
Upcoming Tour Dates:

Apr 19 - Coachella Indio, California
Apr 22 - Academy - Manchester
Apr 25 - Shepherds Bush Empire - London
Apr 26 - Shepherds Bush Empire - London
Apr 29 - Paradiso - Amsterdam
Apr 30 - Bataclan - Paris
May 2 - Polsslag Festival - Hasselt
May 3 - Live Music Hall - Cologne
May 4 - Magazzini Generali - Milan
May 6 - Columbiahalle - Berlin
May 8 - Debaser Medis - Stockholm
May 10 - Ramat Gan National Stadiu - Tel Aviv
May 23 - Sasquatch Festival - Quincy, Washington
Jun 12 - Bonnaroo - Manchester, Tennessee
Jul 10 - T In The Park - Kinross, Scotland
Jul 11 - Oxegen Festival - Punchestown, Dublin

The 411: I guess I can sum up this album as: it’s got something for everyone, kind of. Folks who never previously listened to the YYYs might be drawn to the club hits at the top of the track list, some veteran fans will probably like the stuff in the middle, and still others will likely be drawn to the soft cushion at the bottom. My guess is those diehard YYYs fans will roll around and drool on anything Karen, Nick and Brian toss their way, jumping all over any chance to worship their heroes. I was flatly disappointed by roughly half of this album—almost the entire album if you don’t count the bonus tracks, yet in less than a week after its digital release on iTunes there were 456 ratings and 146 reviews, adding up to 4.5 out of 5 stars—I just don’t think there’s any other way to explain that high of a rating except old-fashioned golden retriever style loyalty.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]