Review: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

Karen O is back to kick some ass! Three years after Yeah Yeah Yeah's last studio album "It's Blitz" comes to surface as a fresh breath of dance-punk and dream rock. Although I have never been a big fan of the band I dare say most of their stuff deserves a good load of listening and happens to be way better than the majority of wannabe rock bands hailing from the States and Canada. As I am not following their career too much and I had no idea they have had already released the album and got to hear it just a day ago, but it immediately made a good impression...not that I had a bad one before.

From a first listen you can prove yourselves that the album is better in composition, has less stylistic detours and lyrically explores more topics. With this release Karen O shows more singing and less screaming, which is a big plus at least to her vocal abilities. She definitely can sing, but spent annoyingly too much trying to make us deaf. "It's Blitz" is not a leap to a more commercial niche, but rather an example of maturity and taking music for real. For most of the time the instruments create a structural harmony, which was hard to be found with their first releases, which sounded more distorted and less professional. Definitely time has gad its impact on Yeah Yeah Yeahs and "It's Blitz!" proves that even the biggest party-crashers can come up with some genuinely original. Of course, this doesn't mean that Karen O and company have grown into a bunch of old nagging rockers, who hold up to their old rusty glory. Yeah Yeah Yeahs is still one of the most promising alternative rock bands to hail from the States and I am pretty sure that there is more and more to come.

There are a few weak points but they are rather insignificant to the concept of the album, that they could be easily omitted when listening to the whole product. The title "It's Blitz!" may be a direct references to the German word Blitz (Eng. lightning) a connotation of the album's striking content filled with electrifying energy. Karen O is polarizing the whole atmosphere with her aggressively charming attitude towards your brain-cells, which either have to shake to the rhythm or are going to bring you to a dull life.

Songs to hear: "Zero", "Head Will Roll", "Dull Life" and "Shame and Fortune"

Personal rating: 8 out of 10