Blitz it!

The new Yeah Yeah Yeah's album It's Blitz! is here....ish. It's due on 12th April or some time waaay far in advance of now. I got the leak yesterday. Exciting? Could be.

Starts off with the very electro Zero and gives the impression that they have given up on creating something that could be better than Maps or Date With The Night, or Machine and gone for a much more superficial, contemporary - so much so it will sound dated in a months time - sound designed solely for dance-floors. I think this is where a lot of people have stopped listening judging from initial reports. Maybe the really indie-schmindie kids got scared off here and deleted the file in disgust. It's not disgusting; it's just pretty disingenuous...but still pretty. Second track Heads Will Roll is very similar but eases off the electro and brings in a bit more guitar. Already the shock reports of no guitars are w.r.o.n.g. Nick Zinner has got plenty of tricks up his sleeve across this album. The 3rd and 4th tracks are pretty subtle and more listens, and the actual high quality CD rather than a crappy mp3 will probably reveal a lot of sound design within them. Having said that, next up is Dull Life which comes on like a hammer blow. It's textbook YYY's anthemic and euphoric with a thick guitar riff that makes up for it's lack of subtlety by striking an immortal rock-pose of the kind the last two albums did so well, replicating the fist-pumping stadium filling Y-Control. The lack of electric textures is made up for by the entrance of acoustic guitar in the second phase verse - it's an excellent addition to the tones of the track and is deployed much more effectively than the acoustic guitar in Gold Lion.

Jump two more tracks. It's not that they're filler, more like I want to save you something to discover yourself >>>

Track 7 comes in with the kitchen sink romantic collapse of Runaway. I am always disappointed with love songs, not only are they boring subject matter but someone like Karen O is supposed to be the one making boys cry. She never mopes, lope. Ah well. The track is a winner though; swept into a climax of strings that breaks the heart of the song and adds a sudden sumptuousness to the centre of the record. Off the back of that and just so you know where they are coming from, leaving you in no doubt as to their credentials, the skulking dropped kerb bass-line lead of Dragon Queen is instantly arresting. The track goes on to mention Nightclubbing in lyric and sounds a lot like the rhythm of the Iggy Pop song too. Sweet chewy Pop with a hard Punk centre. Or at least, it was made in a factory that contained punk, so sensitive kids be careful.

This could be good. Really good.


MxBx