Jeffrey Luppino-Esposito EDITOR

There is something painfully tragic about a potentially beautiful work of art trapped in a frame from IKEA. Especially when that work of art has been leaking, streaming, and priming the pump of the blogeconomy for the last month and a half (unfortunately, yes, the recession imagery is intentional)

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs digitally released their new album It’s Blitz Monday after the music world has been long bathing in the releases of singles “Zero” and “Heads Will Roll”. Of course, baths involve floating in one’s own filth for extended periods of time, which is no fun. These opening singles are filled with cringingly silly lyrics, Karen O orgasming into a microphone, and, in “Zero”, an odd likeness to a mashed up U2 song.

Believe it or not, I’m giving this album a six and a half (out of the standard arbitrary 10 scale), despite my apparent disgust (which has inevitably grown with the convenience of hate-driven analogies to economics and hygiene).

Underneath the generally unlistenable dance numbers, which include the two singles as well as “Shame and Fortune” and “Dragon Queen”, there is a surprisingly pleasant natural sound driven from the experimental synth at the heart of this album.

“Soft Shock” delivers some interesting digital-woodwind-esque sounds and a lighter dance number that works for the whole group, as does “Runaway” that feels like it should make an award-winning appearance in the next 007 video game. Smack in the middle of the work is one of the only other truly enjoyable songs, “Dull Life,” which brings the guitar back from the digital depths of the indie world and busts out a fun riff and a great slide out of Karen O that had me awkwardly bopping my head since it is the only dance move I will ever learn.

The real failing in this album, however, comes not from a lack of musicianship, but rather from a lack of understanding of one’s own music. For a third album, this is a disappointment. Opening the work with “Zero” and “Heads Will Roll” immediately puts the band at a low point that they never fully recover from until “Hysteric”, the second to last song on the album. Along the way there is a clear confusion as to what sound the band is striving for. This instills an inherent lack of confidence in the listener that leads to a general frustration from a sense that we are being played with and that this album was not constructed in a manner that took our feelings into full consideration. Sorry if that’s too emotional, but I expect to be treated with care.

Karen O is almost unbearably annoying at times with her shouty, inarticulate singing that should not be placed over the heavy dance beats of some of the more confused numbers on the album. However, on songs like “Soft Shock”, “Dull Life”, and “Runaway” the whole group proves what could have been excellent with this album, and hopefully will come to full fruition in their next shot.

The general air of self-musical-ignorance is quite traumatically evidenced in the closing number, “Little Shadow” in which the Yeah Yeah Yeahs convince themselves that they have taken you on an epic journey that requires reprising the overly ritualistic synth riff from “Skeletons” earlier in the album. The fact is that despite some enjoyable single performances within the work, the overall piece is thrown together in an elementary fashion and the music never outshines this messy framing.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dull Life.mp3
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero.mp3
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Runaway.mp3
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll.mp3
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock.mp3