Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
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Free Music Notes for Show Your Bones
Free Music Review: Getting Bigger than the Sound
Hit: 5 Stars
The Yeah Yeah Yeah's are really coming into their own on `Show Your Bones', their sophomore release for Interscope records. Moving solidly beyond their early sound, which was immediately something all their own, the band are solidifying their reputation as rock critic darlings, more than that they are proving that they lead the pack. The YYY's have always had sonic experimentation down to a `T', but lacked something in songwriting (with a few notable exceptions such as "Modern Romance/Porcelain"). Here it seems they've toned downed the former somewhat, in order to focus more on the latter. This must be what has caused a legion of indie snobs to baulk at how the YYY's have "sold out" or "lost their edge." Well, you hear this argument for basically every band in history that ever broke through from cult status. It is an old - and almost always groundless - argument and I really just find it boring. In the words of The Libertines "I get along/just singing my song/people tell me I'm wrong.../f*#k `em."
By now everyone knows "Gold Lion" (if you don't then I'm not sure how you happened upon this review). The song structure is perhaps the simplest in the YYY's catalogue, with the four chord progression continuing straight through the whole song without changing. Karen`s exquisite "ooh ooh`s" undoubtedly cement it`s lead single status. The solo is simplistic by Nick Zinner's standards, but that doesn't stop it from blasting off at you like a rocket ship. This is another psychedelic "pop" masterpiece from those who brought you "Maps."
"Fancy" starts out with pounding drums that immediately draw you in. Twenty seconds in the drums are joined by slow, heavy, pounding guitar chords that sound like if Sonic Youth covered a Link Wray instrumental. Then Karen joins in "I find it in the atlas/we're flipping over old news/check what's in the trash bag/we're just another part of you/we're just another part of you/I beg your pardon/beg your pardon/beg your pardon..." before letting loose a scream to rival "Art Star." This goes on for two verses before an incredibly liquid-sounding wah wah effect introduces the quieter bridge which serves as only a short hiatus before launching back to the slashing guitar and pounding drums of the intro, which slam you right home. This song is hardly being mentioned in reviews, which is criminal as it's one of the best on the album.
Next up we find Karen singing with her by now trademark charismatic self-assured attitude. Is she talking about herself in the chorus, or sarcastically putting someone down? Either way it's immediately a favorite and you can't help singing along with "you're something like a phenomena baby/something like a phenomena." The guitar here is almost brain-dead simple, in the tradition of early Neil Young - especially in the middle part of the song where Nick just keeps rhythmically hitting the same note about 50 times in a row.
"Honeybear" opens spectacularly with the bass drum pounding out a beat and Karen singing "turn yourself around/you weren't invited/good good things happen in bad towns" backed by a guitar that just doubles the melody she's singing, until the whole band crashes in and rocks along to the bridge. Brian Chase shows great chops in the middle breakdown, sounding like an heir to Charlie Watts' throne.
"Warrior" begins as a gentle, catchy acoustic ballad, but slowly speeds up and builds to anthemic status by the end. It also boasts perhaps the greatest lyrics Karen O has yet to pen.
"Now the strangers have caught on
And they're riding in the backseat.
The river's gonna watch all,
Yeah the river it spoke to me.
It told me I'm small,
And I swallowed it down.
If I make it at all,
I'll make you want me."
The most popular translation of the "strangers riding in the backseat" is that of people who finally caught on when the band hit it big with singles like "Maps" and now "Gold Lion," versus those of us who have championed the band from the first EP. However, I think the whole song is about the record industry. The strangers are really record execs who must have screwed the YYY's over in the past, when now they've turned out to be a success. Of course, not such a success as to rival pop giants that make record companies the real money, therefore the record industry here is the "river" telling Karen not to get a big head yet, she still is a relatively small fish.
"I know what I know" Karen tells us in the closer, "Turn Into." What is it that she knows? "I'd like to tell you all about it..." but she's interrupted by a simple Nick Zinner solo, augmented by an otherworldly fuzz effect that sounds like the noise you'd expect a UFO to make. His electric rhythm guitar work here is amazing as well, it took The Edge at least 10 years to get half this good. This is another slower, ballad-esque tune and closes the album perfectly.
When this first came out, the songs were so addicting it didn't leave my car's CD player for weeks. Now, months later, I am still listening to it in steady rotation. I may not have mentioned every track, but they are all good. The songwriting is much better and the musicianship, which has also been light years ahead of any of their contemporaries, is getting even more adventurous while at the same time getting simpler, if that were possible. A more pretentious music snob than myself would just complain that they've sold out, and proceed to list all the indie/underground bands that you've never heard of which the YYY's have supposedly "ripped off" (and I see quite a few indie snobs have done just that) but I prefer to let myself just enjoy damn good music when I hear it. Anyway, just listening to this album is enough every time to make me want to go postal worker on my boss for not letting me have the night off when these guys came to Cleveland last. There's no way I'm missing them next time around.
Free Music Review: I will not show MY bones. Not today at least...
Hit: 4 Stars
Like a lot of people I waited three long years for the second Yeah Yeah Yeahs full LP, "Show Your Bones", because I was a fan of their previous record, the serious breath of fresh air, 2003's "Fever to Tell". So, how is this record?
It's good, but not great.
The performances are all great, and the band, Brian Chase on drums, Karen O on lead vocals and guitarist Nick Zinner, are stretching beyond the art punk sounds that made up the bulk of "Fever to Tell", adding in more textures and tones and melody without sacrificing the occasional burst of noise and arty sounds of their earlier EP's. To give a comparison to their previous work, the bulk of "Show Your Bones" is reminscent of the later section of "Fever to Tell", namely "Maps" and "Y Control". The increased sense of texture even allow Karen O to sing more often and shriek less(not necessarily a good thing, but more on that later).
The flaws of this record, oddly enough, are also the record strengths. The band rarely let themsevles go loose, most notably on their latest single, the excellent "Cheated Hearts", and the tempo is rarely above mid-tempo, lending some of the songs a sort vibe and flow as the ones that procede it. While trying to grow the band occasionally has forgotten what was special about them in the first place. And O never really gets to let her voice go fully into the banshee like wail that marked many of their earlier recordings. For those who didn't like that will be happy; myself, I'm a little sad about the loss of unpredictability.
But "Show Your Bones" features zero bad songs, and even the songs that sound like filler are better than most bands A level stuff. The recording is immaculate, never overtly produced or calculated or forced nor to raw for most music listeners, and mixers Zinner and the amazing Alan Moulder(some will know him from his work with Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins, though a certain music listening constituancy remember him from his masterful job on My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless") leave enough room to never suffocate songs.
It appears that "Show Your Bones" is a transistional record towards something different. It is also a very good record to listen to, even if it leaves this listener wanting a little more.
But hey, a really good record is still a really good record, right?
Free Music Review: What could have been great was merely not horrible.
Hit: 3 Stars
Listened to this disc a few times in the last couple days.
A music industry guy gave me a couple piles of CDs to listen
to and offer thoughts, so this one looked promising and
became one of the first I cracked.
YYYs have some potential to be a very very good group, and have the talent, but where they are lacking is in the ability to show multiple faces through their production.
This is a disc that the average listener would play through once, and then, occassionally pop in for a one or two song refresher. It would probably never have a complete run through again.
The sameness of the songs is distracting. In fact, it's difficult without actually looking at the player to remember at what points the tracks changed. There is not alot of room to say, "Oh! Listen to this track, I really like it."
I cannot put my finger on the pulse enough to say its a problem in production, or song writing. It is NOT in performance. That is pretty enjoyable throughout. I believe they need to get a good handle on song writing. It would be beneficial to absorb a little variety into the actual song types, and if most of the band has similar tastes, simply employing different songwriters would not resolve the sameness issue. The writer has to stretch to encompass something unique and new.
Performances - B+ Songs Overall - C
Free Music Review: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Something New
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is a must for any YYY's fan. It picks up where Fever to Tell left off. It picks up their old sounds and adds a little more style to it. I highly reccommend it, very good cd. A few favorites of mine are Gold Lion, Way out, Fancy, Cheated Hearts and Mysteries. The whole album is awesome, buy it. Free Music Review: Another great album from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Hit: 5 Stars
Many people have criticized Karen O. for her antics on stage or her sense of fashion, and therefore overlooking the huge talent behind it all. Karen O.'s voice is amazing and conveys emotion in every song on this album. I saw them twice in concert and her voice sounds as good live as it does recorded. I still love their previous albums ("Yeah Yeah Yeahs" and "Fever to Tell"), but it's clear that the vocalist has gone through a major transformation in her life after the accident in Australia when she almost broke her spine. Her lyrics are more introspective ("Turn Into" and "Sweets"), there is less rage and angst than on her previous albums. Karen has clearly made peace with herself and it shows in her music and in her voice. That doesn't mean that the songs on this album are all sweet ballads, she is still as passionate as before and the music is full of energy. It's a great album.