Mixed Media Junkie

I wasn’t an ardent fan of Fever to Tell; it seemed like an uneven record with, for me, a handful of standouts and a bunch of ‘meh’ songs. But when I found out the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were playing this year’s Coachella Valley Music Festival, I was pretty excited at the thought of seeing Karen O.’s legendary stage antics in a festival setting.

Then I read somewhere that Karen O. described the YYY’s new album as a collection of “campfire sing-alongs,” and that she wanted to mature as a vocalist, presumably leading to a toning down of her on-stage histrionics. Say it ain’t so.

I can’t imagine Karen and co. sitting around the fire kumbaya-ing; their version probably would end with broken bottles of whiskey and giant human smore sandwiches. Nevertheless, the soon-to-be-released Show Your Bones is indeed a bit of a departure from Fever – it’s less raucous, with the band seeming more sure of itself. Sure, Karen O.’s occasional screeches and squawks are still sprinkled throughout, but even those seemed more… controlled. Bandmates Brian Chase and Nick Zinner do a commendable job of displaying their musical chops in lieu of the art-rock noise for which the band is (was) known. In fact, the streamlined Bones is much more cohesive than its predecessor, and might even border on straight pop/rock. The band’s early adopters and fans of the New York noise-rock scene may find this lamentable, but I’m glad to hear this particular evolution.

Some thoughts on a couple of tracks:

• There’s no way around it: the first single, Gold Lion, sounds straight out of Tegan and Sara’s playbook. Still, a damn catchy tune, and a good opener.
• Way Out continues with another guitar strummer, but Fancy changes up the tempo with a heavier, sludgier sound – and here are some squawks!
• The mellower, melodic tracks include Dudley, Sweets, and my personal pick as the Maps-type ballad that’ll hopefully catch on as big as that song did – Turn Into
• Mysteries sounds like it would have been right at home on a Walkmen album
• Hmm. Apparently my copy doesn’t have Cheated Hearts which might be the best song of the album. I’ll have to remedy that.

Final thought: if there was ever a Karen O. biopic, wouldn’t Natalie Portman be perfect as the YYY hellcat? There’s no arguing with me on that one, don’t even try.

* Edit – Found Cheated Hearts. It immediately ties Turn Into as album fave upon first listen.