Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

It’s Blitz

The radio friendly follow up to 2006’s Show Your Bones is finally reviewed by yours truly. It’s Blitz is definitely a more polished record. The raw angrier sound from Show Your Bones and Fever to Tell have been, on the whole, done away with. It’s inevitable though. As bands move on in their musical life, things change, whether it’s producers’ Dave Sitek and Nick Launay influence or an actual intent to change their sounds into what I’d say is more mainstream. It works.

The album leads off with "Zero". Karen O’s gritty vocals, reminiscent of Siouxsie Sioux (kids, look up Siouxsie and the Banshees). Only not as scary looking. After all, Karen was voted sex goddess of the year in 2004 and 2005 according to SPIN magazine. She’d probably still kick my ass though.

Anyhoo, I digress, yet again (I tend do to that a lot). The song is a good mesh of what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were in their previous works to what they're leading towards with this album.

"Heads will roll" – What i'm calling, the album’s “dance” track. With lyrics like “off with your head, dance til your dead” it's catchy, but campy. I can picture the alterna-awkward-teens making a strange dance to this song.

"Soft shock" – Great song. I’m going to say this is the album’s “Maps”. Wait for it to show up on Rock Band one of these days I’m sure.

"Skeletons" – Can you have a semi-anthemic song talking about skeletons? Apparently you can and this is it.

"Dull life" – the closest you’re going to get to the angst/anger of the previous two albums. It sounds great.

"Shame and fortune" – I have no gambling blood in me. It’s odd as an asian man, you’d think I’d be known on the Rama bus by now, but I think I’d take this as my theme song when I go to the casino.

"Runaway" – I think i must've lived in a stepford family, i never thought about running away. "Runaway" was Tom Selleck's best movie. Discuss.

"Dragon queen" – probably the album's weakest track. it's not that it's horrible, it's just not memorable.

"Hysteric" – Has anything but hysterical melodies. Nice song.

"Little shadow" – Completes the album with a melancholic finish.

Fans of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs previous two albums may be disappointed with the change in It’s Blitz, but I think it’s a natural progression from the angst. Even Green Day had to grow a little (and by a little, I mean just a bit, new album sounds like every other Green Day album…there I go digressing again. That’s another blog post).

Great album.