yeah yeah yeahs: fever to tell.
after only two years of existence and two EPs, the yeah yeah yeahs have developed an enormous reputation for their manic live shows, where the garage drums and the new wave guitar dodge traffic and collide with the crazed vocals of karen o. the uk press is abuzz and the new york scene have embraced the three-piece as yet another leader in the current new wave of gotham rock.
their debut album, fever to tell, starts off with an enormous bang with rich, as karen o tells us what she has and what she wants from us and the band crashes along with a mission to get you up off your seat and flailing your body parts madly. the first single, date with a night, bounds along in its own momentum as karen starts squealing away. in fact, the words sometimes take a backseat to whatever other noises she makes, particularly on tick and black tongue, which sound like she's going to explode and take out your stereo with it.
as the album progresses though, the last third of the album slows down to show a surprisingly tender side, something not preluded to before by the band. this puts an appreciated angle to the yeah times threes, especially the loving maps and the forlorn y control. to me, this contains the emotion that the latest white stripes album is missing: a sincere command of how to connect with the listener. the yeah yeah yeahs have their own bag of tricks to pull from, but they manage to find the hidden message and bring it out.
epitonic has a few cuts, please download and then find more. the yeah yeah yeahs are much more than the hype.
yeah yeah yeah!