Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Show Your Bones is already being hailed as one of the best rock albums of the year … and for good reason.
New York art-punk trio the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have seen their fair share of good and bad times. Their most recent effort, Show Your Bones, is the result of internal and external forces having evolved the lives of this small band of misfits: flamboyant front-woman Karen O., drummer Brian Chase and guitarist Nick Zinner. Show Your Bonesis already being hailed as one of the best rock albums of the year … and for good reason. Produced by Squeak E. Clean, brother of legendary director Spike Jonze, Show Your Bones is clean and refined, unlike the low-fi garage band sound of 2003’s Fever to Tell. Karen O’s strong-yet-sexy rebellion is both rough and transparent. Her voice is strong and hard one minute, soft and subdued the next, and is the first thing one will notice upon listen of Show Your Bones.
The “We Will Rock You” anthem of “Gold Lion” is gaining momentum on college radio, and “Phenomenon,” with its poppy eeriness and mean downbeat may be next in line. Nearly every track on this album is worth mention, but the Hush Little Baby tune of “Dudley” and the catchy, sing-song choruses of “Honeybear” and “Cheated Hearts” are especially note-worthy. O sings over a simplified beat on “Cheated Hearts;” “Take these rings / stow them safe away / wear them on another rainy day.” “Mysteries” straight up rocks out with O’s screaming vocals rivaling Zinner’s raucous guitar like it’s nobody’s business. O bellows, with obvious frustration; “I don’t even know what it’s like not to go back to you…” While Karen O is seemingly exposed in the lyrical spotlight on Show Your Bones, Chase and Zinner seem content standing back and holding their own musically. They come through at all the right times, producing a sound that is a perfect blend of punk melancholy and poppy satisfaction.
The YYYs broke into the scene in 2004 and took flight after the melancholy ballad “Maps” (Fever To Tell) hit MTV2 and every subsequent radio station in the country. (You remember that haunting chorus: “Wait … they don’t love you like I love you”) They came out of nowhere in 2004 to receive a Grammy nod for Best Alternative Music Album, but lost out to the White Stripes. They have previously toured with Girls Against Boys, Sleater-Kinney and John Spencer Blues Explosion and are currently headlining a tour through Europe until the end of May. 20-something Karen O has solidified herself as a bona-fide rock goddess. Onstage antics are O’s norm and she’s known for wrapping mike cords around her neck and spitting beer on audiences at live shows. O has rocked a wardrobe that’s somewhere between Pat-Benetar-meets-psychotic-tap-dancer, and has recently ditched her mullet for a cropped pixie haircut. Regardless, the YYYs normally sell out shows within a matter of hours.
(Interscope Records)