#8 – Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz!

Karen O turns a lot of heads for many different reasons: her flashy stage presence, her ridiculous woredrobe and most importantly, that one-of-a-kind voice that leads these New York garage rockers. But Yeah Yeah Yeahs are much more than a front woman, literally and figuratively speaking. With guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase added to the mix, they create the scowling, dirty guitar rhythms that the YYYs are famous for.
When the first single from It’s Blitz! “Zero” was released, it was clear that this was a different direction than the band’s previous releases Show Your Bones and debut Fever To Tell. The more refined sound of the single brought a sense the band was cleaning up a bit, but not without keeping the attributes from the same band who hit it big with hits “Maps” and “Y Control”. Blitz! features tracks that range from “Heads Will Roll” (quite possibly their catchiest to date), to the sluggish but chilling “Skeletons” and “Hysteric”, the best vocals shown from O throughout the entire album and a whistling outro. If you don’t get the chills from that, check your pulse.
O’s hand graces the cover of the album, and it would be hard to believe that she could keep from cracking that egg any further than halfway through the lead track, “Zero”. Although this release features a new side from YYYs, we still see and hear everything we’ve seen from the band before: a consistently catchy, sometimes grimacing, output of songs that just can’t be denied.

Here’s our countdown towards WPGU’s Album of the Year:
20. Jay-Z: The Blueprint 3
19. Manchester Orchestra: Mean Everything To Nothing
18. Wolfmother: Cosmic Egg
17. The Flaming Lips: Embryonic
16. Miike Snow: Miike Snow
15. Discovery: LP
14. Silversun Pickups: Swoon
13. Julian Casablancas: Phrazes for the Young
12. Andrew Bird: Noble Beast
11. The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You
10. Japandroids: Post-Nothing
9. Arctic Monkeys: Humbug
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz!
#7 coming Thursday…stay tuned!

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