Show Your Bones

by

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Edit

First, I'd like to thank God or whichever other-worldly being gave us Karen O and all her crazy amazing antics.

Show Your Bones is hardly Fever To Tell, but that's not a bad thing at all. On their 2nd release the YYY's sound a little tamed down, more mature, and slightly more focused.

There's something for everyone to like here. Fans of their debut album will feel right at home with tracks like "Cheated Hearts" (which is almost like a more subtle Y Control) then there's the extremely catchy first single, "Gold Lion" with it's sing-along chorus and sticks-in-your-head backing percussion. Speaking of which, the percussion is excellent all around on this cd, definitely one of the first things that caught my attention. If you buy this cd thinking it'll have all those signature Karen O shrieks and howls, you might be a little disappointed. But hopefully you'll give it a chance despite that, because this new slightly more calm Karen is just as appealing. It doesn't sound as if they're taking their 'old' sound and making it more quiet, it just sounds like they're controlling it much better and more artistically. It sounds like a really smart, well thought out progression- and although different, just as interesting to listen to.

"Fancy" will remind you of Fever To Tell, if anything for Karen's vocals here. There's a lot of new interesting experimental sounds, the obligatory ambiguous lyrics...generally just a lot to like.

Highlights:

"Way Out" - 2nd track off the cd following "Gold Lion", and appropriately so. she says "The face aint making what the mouth needs", and it's slick and jarring and you'll want to play it over and over. Definitely one of their best songs to date.

"Honeybear" - electro-punk rock YYY's style, if this song doesn't get you bobbing your head, something is seriously wrong. I don't even know what she's saying a lot of the time but it's great!

"Mysterious" - a fast paced nod to all the great rock of the past, sung almost 50's-60's style until she starts her awesome screaming. grabs a hold and makes you listen.

"Warrior" - this mystical and slightly lonely tamborine number almost recalls Mazzy Star circa "So Tonight That I Might See" in the beginning, minus...well, Hope Sandoval obviously. Karen says men might like her because she's a Warrior, then there's talk of roads and rivers, and travelling it all away. Shows a different side to the YYY's... mellow and introspective, definitely one of the strongest songs. Very good stuff.

"Turn Into" - Love it, love it, love it. Great way to finish off an extremely catchy & interesting cd. "Can't say why I kept this from ya / my those quiet eyes become ya" - when she sings this, it's endearing and cute and lovely.

I can't say that when I was first introduced to the YYY's I ever expected to hear honest, humble admissions. Let alone really catchy yet subtle melodies and choruses that bury themselves beneath my skin. But now I have, and it's most definitely an experience worth sharing and recommending to anyone who's a fan of just great rock music. There really isn't a bad song on the whole album.

With "Show Your Bones" the YYYs solidify their presence on the rock scene, and undeniably carve out their own signature slot void of any "PJ Harvey-Meets the White Stripes" comparisons.

Well, this album was surely interesting. I am a huge fan of the avant-garde, and since these guys had the avant- art-punk label, i thought that these guys would be great. I am really disappointed. If any of you guys have been following popular music lately, bands try to fuse some odd dinstinct little things with their largely bland uninteresting, i-am-the-same-as-everyone-else type rock. And the yeah yeah yeahs are no different. sure they use some short dissonant parts, but most of this album sounds like the same other [...] that is plaguing the airwaves. There is too much repetitive choruses, too much of the same feeling throughout the album, and while the variety is sure welcoming, it also is a disappointment because if they were to use their odd parts of the song, create a whole album from that, and somehow make it work, they would rank much much higher, at least in my book. Maybe i came into this whole experience with the wrong expectations, but for those who were thinking that this was some strange avant-punk release that somehow made it mainstream, look FAR away, because there is nothing here that is strange in the least bit, and it is another one of those releases who will slip into the dark hole that is mainstream music.