The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

Take Metric, add miles of cunning craftsmanship and you’ll have The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The YYY’s bone up on power punk with their new album aptly named, Show Your Bones. Karen O sears our ears with sweltering vocals that leave any man hot under the collar and any girl choking on theirs. Even stealing a chorus from LL Cool J couldn’t chill her fiery antics down, because when Karen O leads the anthem, “Something Like a Phenomena” you’ll combust with audible energy. Even Zinner and Chase leave us hanging on every note and noting that they are as potent as their female front fatale. As a trinity they produce a sound that parallels their last album Fever to Tell while still lighting a fresh sound that many bands could never hold a candle too.

Songs like “Fancy” bring us back to the moaning rock that Fever offered us. “Gold Lions,” the title track, conjures up an image of Gwen Stefani having a stab at lip synching Siouxsie Sioux. While Karen O may think she is “bigger than the sound” in “Cheated Hearts,” the only thing she is bigger than is most of the low grade pop consumers buy today. The immediacy we were fed in Fever is gone and with this new album, Karen O leaves us with a cold, starving for more. The band isn’t filling up the dance quota, they simply give us what they want to give; even if we are ravenous for more. So before you raise up your pitchforks in disapproval, remember that brilliant artists write what they want, sing what they want and play what we should want. “HoneyBear,” following in the spirit of the Sex Pistols, states that the YYY’s are the “way we want it” and if we don’t like it…well…tough. YYY’s set us on fire and those who stop the record, drop their opinions and roll over the band just can’t handle the burn. So iTtune in to the flaming sound of a band quick to fame.

Posted on April 15, 2006 12:00 AM