Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Mosquito

Well I'm sure this'll be an album that people will listen to and I certainly hope they build on the last album because that's where they finally got interesting enough for me to listen to them more than once even though I know people heavily disagree because that's the joy of variety of opinion and all and WHAT IN THE

http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/49124/1acfde93.jpg

wow.

Said on FB: "Looks like something Green Jelly would have concocted."

Ha! Is there a release date? Excited! Whatever happened to Karen O's plans for a solo album? Not that I don't prefer more YYY's, but sort of expected to see something else from her in 2010, but perhaps that just mutated into the Wild Things soundtrack.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Suddenly I imagine DJP as a collector of cute fuzzy huge mosquito dolls.

I LOVE THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS SO FUCKING MUCH

AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS I CAN HARDLY STAND IT.

But that cover is the worst thing I've ever seen.

http://youtu.be/_Ce365czGC0

Less stoked about James Murphy and Kool Keith apparently featuring.

It looks like an electrocuted garbage pail kids card.

I was too busy giggling to make the Garbage Pail Kids connection

they should have gone whole hog and called the album Moe Squito tho

hahahaha

YES

Hmmmm!

http://991.com/newGallery/Neurotic-Outsiders-Neurotic-Outsider-99000.jpg

http://static.nme.com/images/gallery/2013YeahYeahYeahsPressDanMartensen140113.jpg

Oh that's nice, Kim Thayil is pulling double duty these days.

omg this entire thing is so 90s, god help me

that car commercial with "phenomenon" has gotten me hyped for this album tho

http://www.topps.com/sites/default/files/InteriorPage_HeaderImage_GarbagePailKids_0.jpg?1332175319

still baffled this wasn't on the last album (nor even the deluxe issue) only the Japanese edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6SZOoa08mY

it's gonna be real tough to possess a copy of an album with that cover art

may mark the first time i deliberately leave the stupid itunes note in there

it's gonna be real tough to possess a copy fewer than six copies of an album with that cover art

fixed

I mean, if I can put up with NO LOVE DEEP WEB

is that a Basement Jaxx sleeve

SCARS

http://lh3.ggpht.com/-2zVyTGxwGTE/SJi1VWopTvI/AAAAAAAABvY/qNODmax0h6E/disgustin%252520justin.jpg

just combine the two by replacing the baby with zach hill's dick xp

Well then the mosquito won't starve, at least.

actual lol

wow, the last time i saw their drummer he looked like a sort of mild-mannered midwestern fraternity brother and now he's like The Wise Man of Rock or something!

you say "The Wise Man of Rock", I say "Multivariable Calculus TF"

Just so you know, the "concept" for the photo of them sitting on that banquette came from KK Barrett, who does production design for Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola. And who played drums in the Screamers. Full marks to him: it must have needed all his experience to come up with the idea of a band sitting on a banquette. The photo credit, of course is separate, and to my mind irrelevant. That image is all about the concept.

Drummer in that pic is like:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTSLmu97JiP3DNk2z49W6HvUlzGwYvQ4JB5bm8Nr8SCJyfbugMetQ

Plus:

http://www.rollogrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/tumblr_luvhwjaEC11r4teu1o1_1280-600x375.png

favorite band or something

Oh that's nice, Kim Thayil is pulling double duty these days.

― Ned Raggett, lundi 14 janvier 2013 15:32 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And Karen O has been replaced by Anne Heche.

I thought they were one of the better early 00s bands who didn't bother with bass for some reason

don't really like them though

Judging by the cover this is going to sound like The Offspring.

or...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Sponge_-_new_pop_sunday.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=9ZwFrbXnKX4

Snippet of new track "Always"

Karen's starting to look a lot like the Joy Formidable girl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZwFrbXnKX4

Sacrilege out now in full: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/02/listen-to-the-yeah-yeah-yeahs-new-song-title.html

p cool track imo

was ready to say "this is excellent" and then arrived the gospel choir

super excellent then

Said on FB: "Looks like something Green Jelly would have concocted."

― Ned Raggett, Monday, January 14, 2013 10:21 AM

x-post - OTM.

I love this to bits

DJP and CAD when/if they come here next I will be in charge of getting us tickets and we're all going. Y/Y?

Y

:D OK, I am on it.

the only things that would keep me away would be a gig or being out of town

yeah! i'm in.

I mean, whenever this happens I'll make sure to check back before buying but if at all possible we should definitely do this.

Choir makes the song. Actually I think it saves it. This bunch remains the world's most frustratingly near-successful band for me.

oh good, it sounds like adele

ok, what?

A couple people on fb are comparing it to Gimme Shelter. Why, other than the choir? It's not like Gimme Shelter AT ALL.

oh i was just skipping the stones and going straight for the rolling in the deep trolling option

xp

lol

"just what I wanted, a YYYs version of 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'"

album cover is hideous, but kinda excited about this

"karen why don't you rein it in and leave the shouty sloganeering bit to a gospel choir this time?"

Gospel choirs in rock are usually the last refuge of the lazy arse but this is great.

It's good until the choir -- but I've been listening to "Like a Prayer" and Aretha all weekend.

OMFG this is amazing

choir is the best bit

I NEED TO NOT BE SOMEWHERE I CAN'T DOWNLOAD THIS AND LOOP IT INCESSANTLY FML

By the way this... totally isn't the direction I expected from the cover.

The choir reminds me of Dark/Light by John Frusciante.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1eGIIPtn-s

"Sacrilege" is incredible! vocals/choir aside, it kinda reminds me of ESG for some reason.

this may be my favorite thing they've ever done

i'm now somewhere i've downloaded it and am looping it incessantly, this makes me v happy

Surprised by the strong positive reaction here. I think the drumming sounds amazing and am not averse to the choir, but I would've really liked a double time freakout / some sort of jam towards the end, and the song generally doesn't hold a candle to the leading couple of singles from It's Blitz.

OTM. I suppose the upsetting of expectations is part of its charm. To me the choir sounds like it got off on the wrong bus stop.

I hate "Sacrilidge" so much and wish KCRW would stop playing it all the fucking time.

Gospel choir singing "sacrilidge" over and over is a so contrived. Oh so edgy!

yeah tbh this is really underwhelming

maybe they should play "Sacrilege" instead

in St Peter's.

I think the drumming sounds amazing and am not averse to the choir, but I would've really liked a double time freakout / some sort of jam towards the end

not hearing the choir as a "jam" at the end of this disappoints me but doesn't really surprise me

I don't mind the single but I'm not blown away by it. I'm not too worried though as their lead singles are never my favourite songs on their albums, especially on the first two. Still hoping that the artwork is some kind of joke and they reveal a different cover at the last minute.

especially on the first two

If Date With the Night didn't blow your head off, well...then I just don't know.

When they came out it really took me a while to get into them because of how much I didn't like that song. I like it more now but still get way more enjoyement out of Pin, Maps and Y Control. I still think that is their weakest album though, for me they've improved with each album.

When they came out it really took me a while to get into them because of how much I didn't like that song. I like it more now but still get way more enjoyement out of Pin, Maps and Y Control. I still think that is their weakest album though, for me they've improved with each album.

― Kitchen Person, Thursday, March 14, 2013 10:16 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fwiw, this means you are pretty much my exact opposite in terms of taste in rock music.

Never cared about these guys before Blitz came out

I also like Date with the Night least on that album, by a long shot.

"date with the night" is fucking incredible - i don't like anything else on the debut half as much

"zero" is their only lead single that wasn't a standout on the album

ada's cover of Maps (and then the Mayer/Thomas remix of that cover) beat anything YYY's have done apart from 'Down Boy' IMO.

Oh I loved Zero. It blew my head off first time I heard it and it was so exciting hearing the rest of the album and realising that wasn't an anomaly. The drop at 1:21 is just ridiculous.

Oh I loved Zero. It blew my head off first time I heard it and it was so exciting hearing the rest of the album and realising that wasn't an anomaly

"zero" is their only lead single that wasn't a standout on the album

Zero is great but what's even greater is that a lot of the other songs on Blitz are even greater.

i just find the hook of "zero" a bit lacking compared to everything else on it's blitz

B-but the way her voice ascends on "climb", the huge, dirty late-breaking synth riff, her vocal on the "shellshock" bits, the ludicrous intensity of the last minute, the sheer weight of it. Flawless imo. But then it was my favourite album of 2009 so are were plenty more highs. I'm both excited and nervous about this one as a result.

Heads Will Roll >>> Zero

word

ummm, "Sacrilege" is kind of amazing

Still don't like it, but hope it'll at least work for me in the context of the album.

'Sacrilege' is great. High hopes for this new album. Has it leaked?

david pajo is in the band now!!! woah!

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2013/03/the-25-best-acts-we-caught-at-sxsw-2013.html

David Pajo is like the Vinny Testaverde of indie rock.

DJP AND CAD!!!!!

HOUSE OF BLUES MAY 12TH

WHO IS IN?

OK, I just got three for Kevin, Tina, and I through their website. You go do the same. Now!! :D

$37 (inc. booking fee)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmRI3Ew4BvA

$37 (inc. booking fee)

Each?!?! Jesus

Yeah, each.

So D and S since I just bought three if you guys wanna go you gotta get your own but it shouldn't be a prob since it's still only pre-sale.

I am buying a ticket to this even if I don't know if I can go; we're supposed to be at an afternoon party that day, but J is coming late because of a production of Hairspray she's doing in Hyde Park, so maybe I just hang around until she shows up and then head in from Dorchester to continue drinking and partying

so if this is pre-sale does that mean all the floor tickets will be gone by the time it opens to the public? ;_;

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/magazine/get-yer-yeah-yeah-yeahs-out.html

New stream of "Under the Earth".

v dubby

wow i really love that. this album could be great. i was kinda prepared for it to be a clusterfuck after that album art was revealed

Yeah, now I'm even madder that all these REALLY GOOD songs are being covered up with that horrible sleeve.

Whole thing has leaked btw. Horrible quality though

i mean, i get that album art doesn't exactly mean what it used to in the downloading/streaming age, but it's almost like tell you I DARE YOU TO BUY THIS

Maybe they're hoping people will mistake it for some Fat Wreck Chords or Punk-o-Rama cd and buy it.

personally it sounded like an abject mess to me

the album i mean

The deluxe edition has a slightly different cover which looks a little better.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mosquito-Yeah-Yeahs/dp/B00B10X9BK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1364597595&sr=1-1

no that is still terrible

Not sure what to think of this album. A lot of the songs kind of passed me by which is unusual for them.

The last three songs are the highlights, Always in particular is incredible and one of the best things they've ever done.

Have they released a version of "Sacrilege" that isn't remixed by Foster The People yet?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/magazine/get-yer-yeah-yeah-yeahs-out.html?ref=music&_r=0

Big article in Sunday NY Times (lots of history of the group and descriptions of their personalities,not much about new album)

You’ve never met three more awkward rock stars. Chase is a consummate music nerd, a conservatory-trained jazz drummer who still plays in the city’s experimental scene. Zinner, who looks the part of a rock star, is a regular at bars and other bands’ shows but doesn’t say much. And Karen O is an exhibitionistic Boo Radley, a warped dervish onstage who disappears after the encore and is rarely seen out in real life. What they have in common is a hypersensitivity to the world that borders on pathological — a near parody of the artist’s temperament. It sounds like a miserable way to live.

The fall of 2000 felt like end times for rock ’n’ roll in New York City. On the radio it was all boy bands and Britney Spears, and there hadn’t been a vital rock scene since punk in the 1970s. But on a Sunday night at a tiny club in Lower Manhattan, something was happening.

man

so she dresses like JC Chasez for The NYT Magazine

well this was all quite underwhelming on one listen :/

yeah it's really not very good... "wedding song" is amazing tho

(idk if the "320kbps" version out there is actually HQ? it didn't sound very HQ)

didn't really notice anything partic amazing after "sacrilege" although the master tapes of whichever one has the rap on it need to be burned in a fire

lol james murphy produced that one

Musically, I like that one a lot. I can't even fathom why anyone thought it was a good idea to insert Dr. Octagon into it.

It's grown on me after a few listens but yeah it's a bit of a disappointment after It's Blitz. I really like Subway now but still it's all about the last three songs which are probably the most similar to the slower songs on the last album.

haven't followed them closely since the first album, but live in fall 2001 was my "oh, there's a future rock star" moment.

Ha ha I love that lex had to listen to dr.octagon

The appearance of Dr. Octagon kind of reinforces my initial impression of this as feeling like a low-key Karen O side project rather than a fully-formed YYYs album. Like, very little of it was actively bad but there's not much that stands out either.

I can't even fathom why anyone thought it was a good idea to insert Dr. Octagon into it.

It's probably what happens when your lead singer will collaborate with anything that's not nailed down and therefore presumably bumps into Dan The Automator on a regular basis.

maybe keith provided the dudes in the band with some of his professional escorts

Are rappers ever welcome on non-rap albums? Has anybody ever been happy to hear KRS-One/Q-Tip/Lil Wayne squeezed into an already busy song? Seems like one of those things bands keep trying even though it never works

Kool Thing and Anthrax/Public Enemy are about the only ones i really enjoy...

rappers can be pretty welcome on pop and dance albums

Yeah rappers on pop and R&B records are fine but that's usually because they've got the right kind of beat to work with. It sometimes works on dance albums but more often that not it's a bit clunky. Most post-2000 rock bands know to steer well clear of a guest rap verse because the results are nearly always terrible.

Didn't stop REM deciding it was a good idea for the second time, despite the world having spent the previous 15 years laughing at 'Radio Song'.

in fairness some of us were just laughing at KRS-One

what are u sayin
what are u playin
day after day after day after dayin
baby baby baby baby BA-BAY
MAN THAT STUFF IS DRIVIN ME CRA-ZAY

This is such an ugly album

Kind of reminds me of M.I.A.'s Maya a bit; a potentially interesting work suffocated by sketchy songs that try to mask their sketchiness with harsh production

The MAYA production BOOMED though. It sounded great in cars.

If it sounds like MAYA, I'm guessing I'll be horribly disappointed in it immediately, then spin it on a whim two years later and think "holy shit, this is pretty great!"

MAYA is really good

So has anyone really got into this album yet? I'm on my fifth listen and it's just not grabbing me enough. It's their first really patchy album, I think I really only rate four or five songs on here. I'm kinda bummed out about this.

I guess the only good part is at least I don't have to have that artwork in my collection now.

it's kinda funny how all the music people i follow on twitter have just...stopped talking about this

I haven't heard it yet, but it's really that bad!? Shit!

it's not BAD bad (apart from that one rap track), it just sounds like a bunch of demos. you go "oh" and you move on

Yeah it's not terrible just kind of boring which isn't something you could really say about them before. It does sound a little rushed too and unfinished too. The last three tracks are really beautiful but by then it's a bit too late.

i don't even think they're that special, though i've never been as enamoured of YYYs ballads as most - i think karen o is at her most compelling when she's being fierce, not soppy, and the soppiness only works as a counterpoint to the fierceness (and here there's not a great deal of the latter)

weird given how great "sacrilege" was

my YYYs challop is that "maps" is the least essential song on their debut

"hysteric" is nice but it was certainly overrated in all the it's blitz talk, too

i definitely think if you prefer "maps" to "bang" or "date with the night" there is SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU

The ballads are what made It's Blitz for me. Softshock and Little Shadow are probably my two favourite songs on there. Not sure if they would be classed as ballads but Turns Into and Cheated Hearts are my favourite songs on the second album. I guess I just like the softer side of their music. On the new album the songs that I really don't like are the ones like the title track which sounds like a reject from the first album.

Maps will always be one of my favourites as it was the song that really got me into them, they do have a few better songs though.

yeah look someone who sings the praises of sacrilege and is then like "oh maps is not really essential at all" does not get the same things out of this band as i do

every banger on it's blitz except "zero" is better than every ballad

"heads will roll", "dull life" and "dragon queen" made that album for me

"maps" was better when kelly clarkson turned it into "since u been gone"

was gonna start listing my favourite songs on it's blitz and then realised i had about 6, it's such a great record.

kinda feel like sacrilege has a very similar chord progression to dull life except dull life has the bit where it speeds up, i'm more into that then plunging into full-on gospel choir

anyway i still haven't heard the new one yet. is there a listenable version out there?

xpost Yeah It's Blitz is by far my favourite album of theirs, there isn't a song I don't like.

It's streaming now, not sure if it's much better than the leak though.

http://www.gigwise.com/news/80722/listen-yeah-yeah-yeahs-stream-new-album-mosquito-on-youtube

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-54jXoS8pqP4/UBrI5NisAnI/AAAAAAAAAJI/Ye6_1eSfKkw/s1600/offspring+-+americana.jpg

Soft Shock isn't really a ballad imo. It's house tempo for one thing.

i definitely think if you prefer "maps" to "bang" or "date with the night" there is SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU

OTM

I really like both sides of their songwriting - Karen O's cooing Chrissie Hyde impression is one of my favourite sounds in rock music and as important as when she sounds like she and the band are about to claw your face off. The definitely got better at blending those two elements over time though, up until now at least.

Listening to this - I like it much more than IB - that was some kind of glammy dance confection - this is less overt but more interesting to me. Only tune I don't really like is Sacrelige. I suspect that those who really dug IB as the best YYY album may not like this because it is more subtle and less about the glaring flashing lights.

this profile is really good and has sooooo many quotes that nail why i think this record is a mess

http://www.spin.com/articles/yeah-yeah-yeahs-mosquito-karen-o-cover-story-march-2013

Its more interesting cos its a mess.

I thought they stopped printing Spin... (unless "cover story" is just a euphemism)

well we have an ipad magazine for which that's the cover

oh

The "it's just too subtle for all you pop hook obsessed lightweights" line absolutely is not applicable here

Take it 2 the knife thread, there is an actual argument to be made there

No. Didn't mean or say last record was for 'pop obsessed lightweights ' The songs on this record seem to be just as accessible in terms of audience - just that I think the production and nature of the songs - 'the demo quality' referenced already gives the record a more spontaneous, loose kind of feel to the more obviously painstaking sheen of the previous record. I think it is fair to say though that 'more subtle' is not reasonable description of this album verses IB.

I should add that I didn't think the last record was awful or anything it was just not the version of YYY that I prefer - that is to say first record or Is Is - where the atmosphere is one of organised chaos.

By the way why so aggressive? - telling me to go away - that's just mean. Don't be a meanie.

<i>it's not BAD bad (apart from that one rap track), it just sounds like a bunch of demos. you go "oh" and you move on

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Friday, April 5, 2013 8:26 AM</i>

<i>this profile is really good and has sooooo many quotes that nail why i think this record is a mess

http://www.spin.com/articles/yeah-yeah-yeahs-mosquito-karen-o-cover-story-march-2013

― J0rdan S., Friday, April 5, 2013 9:40 PM</i>

From that youtube album preview, this sounds like it will be the most disappointing album of 2013, showing the YYYs as a band who had some really great energy and raw ideas with their initial independent material but handed that energy over to image consultants or something and fell into a non-confidence about their initial sound that resulted in some kind of confusion about who they really want to be. ('we never had an ideology,' via Spin, etc.) Jordan otm about that article exposing exactly why this album sucks, and why anything subsequently from them will suck. The entire article has these undertones that express How We Effectively Ruined Nick Zinner. I mean from the way the interview was presented it sounds like the collaborator basically backed Zinner into a corner to in order to get permission to chuck pedal, what the heck? He's the only one I might want to hear a solo record by, yet, apparently the band saved him from that. And I might be totally off the mark, but from his silent artisticness it sounds like he might be kind of an insecure/introverte guy, however talented, apt to be influenced by more annoying, louder voices (band manager, MS O?)

And what lex said--a hearty handful of the songs on Mosquito sound like first drafts drenched in echo to protect that they're these absolutely unrealized ideas. Like just because Chase can drum to sound a subway train doesn't mean that should be the entire backbone of the song, because it's not minutes-long cool. Maybe if they would have let Zinner keep his pedal...

Anyway "Sacrilege" is a great, well-produced pop track, and the choir definitely works well for in context it as a clean, studio song, but it's nothing that gets back to the roots like they tried to purport in the Spin piece. And that annoying intro on the title track doesn't count or match anything like on Fever To Tell. This is like one of those albums that makes you want to go through the band's back catalog again to temper the magic you felt about them in the first place. Like, 'no, this isn't cool or sexy or exciting, this is actually just really annoying because they're annoying people.'

*oops on formatting

I'm no YYYs aficionado but this album sounds fine to me. Except the second track was really boring. Maybe it would have sounded fine elsewhere on the album, but not as the second track.

I dug a couple of the songs on the playback, but the best comment on this came from my gf: "I liked them better when they didn't have any money"

sooooo many quotes that nail why i think this record is a mess

karen o being a kanye hater until my big stupid fantasy turned her around ://////

also i think show your bones is only their third best album but i am not here for them disowning it like that

"way out" and "turn into" alone >>>>>>>> anything on mosquito

Yeah those are the two highlights along with Cheated Hearts which is my favourite song of theirs these days. Which album is your favourite overall?

Its Blitz is their best composition-wise imho but i hate the production on it. Sounds innapropriate for them.

Which album is your favourite overall?

― Kitchen Person, Sunday, April 7, 2013 8:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's blitz >> fever to tell >>> show your bones = yeah yeah yeahs ep >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> mosquito

my fav YYYs tracks are pretty evenly spread though, i guess a POX would be

bang
heads will roll
date with the night
dull life
turn into
dragon queen
way out
runaway
man
our time

Until this record they got better with each release imo.

"turn into" is so sublime

yeah show your bones in general is really underrated

isn't "Phenomenon" used in a car commercial or something?

Until this record they got better with each release imo.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Yeah this is how I feel. Mosquito is right down at the bottom now.

4th song and this doesn't sound like a tragedy, you catastrophists!

Second listen and "Slave" is alright. Still feels like sketches in echo. "Area 52" is no "Art Star" like O compares in the youtube preview, definitely belongs more on the Garbage Pail Kids soundtrack.

So yeah, finally gave this a listen and I can see what people mean when they say it sounds like a bunch of demos... I definitely don't think it sounds as good as It's Blitz! does, and there's one or two songs here that seem to meander a little without doing much of anything on first listen. I'll certainly be giving it a few more listens before I decide whether I feel this is any good or not, but I don't think it's going to mean as much to me as their previous album did no matter how much or little it grows on me.

listening to official version

it really does sound like it was recorded in a drainpipe :(

Halfway through and I'm liking this so far. I'm not sure I really want to hear a whole album of this murky echo chamber stuff, but it's an interesting direction for them.

from the cover to the dr octagon guest spot, this album is extremely... 90s

It's so unbelievably late 90s it sounds like the band were wearing combat trousers when they recorded it.

'Area 51' is pretty great actually.

it's blitz was already hella 90s

Meh, I've given this album another go this morning and I just really couldn't be bothered with it. Found myself wanting to turn it off and listen to 'Dragon Queen' instead.

huh i wasn't expecting a peaking lights record

this isn't that bad but the cover is so disgusting i will never buy a physical copy

isn't "Phenomenon" used in a car commercial or something?

Cadillac baby!

I am bummed everyone is hating on this, now I don't even want to hear it. Granted the cover was off-putting enough, and I didn't really like Sacrilege so... hopes dashed I guess

it's not bad so far, just kind of a snooze. "slave" is good.

Yeah I am bummed too. I just got it this morning. Stop hating people! You're ruining it for me and I haven't even listened to it yet. :(

although if you're used to dull lo-fi white people dub then you might find something to salvage

I don't think it's terrible by any means. Just, perhaps, a little scatterbrained.

I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to like it nearly as much as their other stuff but it still makes me very very sad. They better not just play this next month. I mean I'm sure they won't but yeah.

a lot of this stuff could probably be complicated and rescued live

How many albums was their Interscope contract signed for? Maybe they're just looking for an easy exit.

'Sacrilege' is quite possibly the best thing on here!

god Always is amazing!

Reviews of this album have actually been fairly kind (77 on Metacritic, somehow), but I feel like critics are just giving it the benefit of the doubt.

i dunno folks, this is sounding pretty neat to me

skipped to the last three tracks everyone is talking about so basically this album is amazing to me so far!

"slave" and "despair" are my cuts off of this. definitely disappointing after it's blitz :(

the rap song is just...sigh

A positive review: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/04/yeah-yeah-yeahs-mosquito.html

how come nobody's said, with mosquitoes the yeah yeah yeahs have lost their BITE

this mosquito truly sucks

don't scratch this itch, for mosquito

it don't draw blood

About to see them in Ventura. A surprisingly young crowd here tonight.

Hoped they had its blitz on vinyl, but it's all mosquito here tonight. Worth $17? The enthusiasm for this record seems low itt.

This cover is awful. Would prbly buy if the cover was not incredibles baby in grasp of mosquito.

listening to this for the first time just now, so far it's pretty bad-ass (1.5 songs in)

i agree sufjan. the cover is so bad it is honestly hard to not have it unfavorably influence my experience of the album, which i actually like a lot, especially "sacrilege."

sacrilege - i like this! sounds relaxed and loose, inhabitable in a way they haven't since maybe forever. hazy production and gospel vocals set up expectations that this is gonna be an exile move: dark, rootsy, unpop. i'm okay with that. i mostly love it's blitz! and like some stuff prior, but have never been fully on board with the yeah yeah yeahs. even starting with fever to tell, i've had the sense of something overconsidered, overdesigned, sculpted to within an inch of its life. the songs have sounded not like cool places they stumbled into, but like "cool spaces" they sat down and decided to construct. this feels much more natural.

subway - like this, too. similar reasons. nice vibe, faraway, stoned and unfussed. would hang.

mosquito - awesome. hilarious, good energy, the kind of shit i wish they'd onto after the first couple EPs (dialing down the intensity but keeping the energy). no great shakes, but i love the percussion and the spacey breakdown.

under the earth - okay, you're all crazy, this album is fantastic. love the bassline, drumming, falsetto vocals, dub noises, those "aaahs" that crop up about three minutes in (!), lyrics, lidded sway. hasn't been a big, standout pop move on the album yet, but i'll take a welcoming expanse in trade. on the first pass, i'm digging this a good deal more than i was the new knife.

slave - damn. if this is underdeveloped, i'm glad they quit where they did. reminds me of the stones' disco period and bowie/moroder's "cat people". and the album as a whole maybe of sandinista!. i could listen to this shit for days. might not stick in my head afterwards, but i'd have a good time.

these paths - okay, now i get the "underdeveloped" charges. this does sound like dubbed-out filler. still like it, but the energy flags (if not the vibe). lol, i thought she was saying "pants" at first. gets kind of lovely towards the end, kind of corny too.

area 52 - goofy shit, maybe too much so for it's own good, maybe not. i get the album cover now. like this and "mosquito" are supposed to be the touchstones. enjoyable, but i wish the arrangement and production here were a little more spacious, leave some room to bang, like the first b-52's album.

i desist. this is weird, lazy and good. along with it's blitz! probably my favorite yyy's. i appreciate the vacation they seem to be taking from big, tough power moves. and it's nice hearing from doctor octagon again. the poignant uplift stretch at the end of the album seems to betray the "concept", and isn't as strong as the "runaway" / "hysteric" / "little shadow" clutch at the end of it's blitz!, but i dig it okay. "wedding song" is particularly nice.

p.s. - i don't get the hate directed at buried alive. one of my favorite tracks here. relistening to it, i'm kind of tripping on how 90s this album really is, though. recalls "radio song" and "kool thing" more than, say, fall out boy flirting with rap/r&b. and the dubbiness reminds me of fringe downtempo stuff like dj spooky's free kitten remix.

and on the second pass, "always" and "despair" can go jump. the album really stumbles in the home stretch, which is a problem, but i'm very happy with the 9 songs i'll keep.

basically feel as contenderizer. i like how many different kinds of crawl are on here.

xpost That is the exact opposite of how I see this album, the last three tracks are the only ones I'm going to end up keeping on my itunes. It's not that the rest of it is terrible it just sounds so rushed and lacking the excitement or energy that made the first album so great. It's Blitz was close to being perfect for me and this feels like a pretty big disappointment. It feels like they really didn't know what kind of record to make so they just tried a bunch of songs in the style of their previous albums but with weaker tunes.

To me Sacrilege just sounds like an average Yeah Yeah Yeahs song but with a choir thrown in to try and give it some kind of edge, it doesn't it just sounds clumsy and over the top but in a bad way. The title track is a poor attempt at doing a Fever to Tell style song, it just isn't as fun as it should be. Most of the other tracks are just really forgettable.

The last three songs are just full of heart which is I guess what I'm after from them now. As I mentioned earlier in the thread I like their mellow side a lot more these days. Cheated Hearts, Turns Into, Softshock, Skeletons Runaway and Little Shadow are my favourite songs of theirs.

Great show. The mosquito songs translated well live. They opened with sacrilege. Ended up buying the vinyl. Heads will roll was the highlight for me. I know I'm 10 years behind you music geniuses in pointing this out, but the metal screams paired with the beautiful bridge in that song sum up the greatness of Karen o and this band for me

Under the Earth is probably my favorite track on the album.

a lot of this stuff could probably be complicated and rescued live

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:37 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was my experience. But I wasn't really a YYYs fan before seeing them live last night, so all of their recorded material has improved for me. I did find that Mosquito songs sounded great live, while some older songs that I knew, e.g. Zero, were surprisingly mediocre in comparison.

i agree sufjan. the cover is so bad it is honestly hard to not have it unfavorably influence my experience of the album, which i actually like a lot, especially "sacrilege."

― authentically inauthentic (Pat Finn), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 8:55 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It was the album release party, so they gave me a signed poster with the album cover on it at the merch table. I can't wait to frame it for hanging in my storage unit.

Under the Earth is probably my favorite track on the album.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, April 16, 2013 11:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Under the Earth is a jam. Sounds like an ESG track.

this is probably not a great album but I've listened to it more than half of what's "better" in 2013? then again I fuck with pretty much any late-'90s rock album like this one

Everything that people are moaning about in here just makes me want to hear this more, I think.

Haha on the last album I defended the lyrics as "impressionist", that you don't really need to listen to them or understand them, that they create a vibe that furthers the particular drive of a particular song and that's all they do, and that's fine, it's like her voice is more like another instrument than something that's conveying structured thought, and I still believe this; this time around I sort of want to defend the entire songs themselves as impressionist, that they create a sort of vibe but don't imprint themselves on the mind, but I don't think I'll believe this for longer than it takes to write this post

That said I really like this record so far, having heard the first four songs

on my playthrough upthread I bailed after the first four songs because I was super tired, but I loved the first four songs

love Slave! love those guitar sounds, how they come piercing through and snap it all into higher focus, the vocals suddenly more upfront too. These Paths ... not so great imo

This is not abysmal. I even dig Dr Octagon's part.

I liked or loved everything up through "Despair", at which point I left the office to grab lunch and this album

about to rip it to my work computer

once you rip it you can hang the cover art on your wall

Hang it directly over the face of your Ecce Homo reproduction

I hung it up and wrote my boss' name under it.

we'll start the bidding at 0.1 BTC
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1484956/yyys_poster_small.jpg

well, I watched the short. So the album art did well for the artist. http://vimeo.com/channels/shimbefilms

It's not abysmal, just kind of dull. There's a sort of career drift moment going on, the first three albums were all super-focused, even when the songs weren't the best there was a sense that the band had a vision of what they were trying to accomplish. I don't get that sense here, there's a feeling of a band throwing a lot of things against the wall and seeing what sticks. It lacks both the emotional heft and the explosive dynamism of their first few records.

Also the first three albums SOUNDED amazing, the production on this one is so scratchy and poor. I dunno, there's a general sense of a band who don't quite know what to do with themselves - most bands get there after a while.

i don't know what the details are, but it SOUNDS like the kind of thing a band puts out when they want to get out of a contract and owe the label one more album. "oh hey we have this one great song and found some demos lying around, here you go"

I had that same suspicion upthread. They may be ready to climb back down to the indie ranks.

matt, lex and johnny may be 100% otm about "career drift", lack of focus, contract fulfillment, poor production and so on. part of what i like about this album, though, is that haze of indecision. it's not terribly insistent, even when playing punk or pop. everything about mosquito is slack, stoned, dgaf. psychedelic and exploratory where in the past they've typically been quite clear and direct. that's probably not gonna cement their place in the pop firmament, but it's not by any means a less valid approach.

i completely understand why people who dug the sense of goal-accomplishment (emotional heft and dynamicism or w/e) matt mentions would be put off. but up to this point, i always found something about their approach a little suffocating and impenetrable. this album is a lot more casually approachable and genuinely enjoyable. "inhabitable", like i said upthread.

I agree with Contenderizer - this is not aiming to win any best album of the year poll but just like a lot more humble and 'lets just enjoy' each others company and see what happens type deal. There is a refreshing lack of an overall coherence - more about process than endless dithering about finessing an end product or trying to advance a career to the'next level'.

Basically everyone here is overanalyzing and this album bangs

settled

Or people just expected a lot more from them four years after the last album. Why shouldn't they be aiming to make the album of the year? They did last time and they got very close.

whose year though? mine, yours, theirs, pitchfork's? it's not like there's one clear way to go about these things. since i've been listening to her lately, i'm thinking of mosquito as a ph harvey move: sideways, away from both expectations and "commercial potential", like is this desire? or white chalk.

pop is a kind of treadmill. bands that show themselves capable of producing the big time rush are forever after held to that standard, with any deviation from pop immediacy deemed a disappointment if not an outright failure. i understand the impulse. i'm a bit disappointed in the new knife album - not because it's weird and unpop, but because they seem to have abandoned melody and even song. i find it hard to imagine that anyone able to write "marble house" and "from off to on" would spurn that gift in favor of clanging abstraction. but yeah yeah yeahs haven't ditched the tunes. they've just softened them up a bit, approached them from different directions. the hooks are still there, just blurred a little.

Sadly I think this is their Uh Huh Her. Gavin summed up that album pretty well on her voting thread.

I remember a friend saying that Uh Huh Her sounded like she'd just gone and recorded two or three songs in the style of each of her previous albums and thrown them together, which I thought was pretty otm.

― Gavin, Leeds

That's how I feel about Mosquito. Is This Desire and White Chalk are both as you say a move sideways but both great albums where she really took risks. Uh Huh Her to me sounded very tired and rushed even though it was almost four years after her last album. That remains the only album of hers I don't actually have much time for and right now that's how I feel about Mosquito, they hadn't really put a foot wrong until now. They didn't take many risks on this album and the ones they did take are not that interesting to me, using a choir and rapper just isn't that exciting.

What's strange is how much more I'm enjoying the new Strokes album but that is an album where the band have taken a sideways step, kept it interesting and remembered how to write great songs again (they only managed three on the last album)

I'm not writing Yeah Yeah Yeahs off I just think they have a high standard and most of this album just isn't good enough. I have no need to listen to this album (I've given it a fair chance) when I can listen to the three great albums they already have.

Played this for 2 new sets of ears tonight and they loved it. They were a bit distracted though so DJP otm basically

See I can't say that this record is going to be a life long favourite of mine but I just don't get the vehemence and the 'I never need to listen to this ever again' reaction.... its not like it's Nickleback or Beach House. People seem to need immediate impact and some sort of chest swelling zeitgeist moment to give a record any credit. If you liked the band previously I don't see why you wouldn't find something to like on this one - the only thing is they have dialled back the careerist 'must break MTV' ambitions and just tried to make some music on their own terms.

Beach House are awesome. Please.

Vampire Weekend?

No. Len. The answer is Len.

OK Good. Len then.

A few listens in on this now, the lead 1-2 punch is just as great as "Zero"/"Heads Will Roll" which basically means that by this time next year I will have "Sacrilege" and "Subway" deep in my bones and feel little to no need to listen to them outside of when they pop up on random shuffle, at which point I will remember that I fucking love them.

"Sacrilege" still sounds like an ambitious misfire, but overall I like this a fair bit, especially "Wedding Song," "Buried Alive," and "Slave."

I love the bits of Santigold's "GO!" that fade in and out of "Under the Earth"

(nb: I realize that it is not necessarily a sample but rather the way the echo and reverb evoke "GO!", which Karen was on)

this album owns and i like that the liner notes are 100% committed to the ghastly art (closeups of proboscis, demonic eyes, baby's face, etc.)

helps ease the pain:

http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/yeah%20yeah%20yeahs%20album%20art.jpg?1365069027

Gave this another go yesterday... turned it off halfway through. Yeah, I think me and this album are done!

well isn't this more depressing than the Tim Robbins/Susan Sarandon split! They're done! kaputt!

i'd like to state for the record that on 2/25/13 i sent DJP a facebook message telling him that he was going to be the only person on earth to like the yeah yeah yeahs album

I kinda like it. Well, better put, I don't have any major problems with it.

well substitue "like" for "love" based on your preferences

Meh. I ain't shedding a tear at the thought of not listening to this album again, that's for sure.

I love this album. It is my introduction to loving the yyys. My only problems are the cover, and the vaguely "yeah yeah yeahs shreds" feel to that lead guitar in sacrilege

this album owns and i like that the liner notes are 100% committed to the ghastly art (closeups of proboscis, demonic eyes, baby's face, etc.)

― the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, April 24, 2013 4:35 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and I forgave the cover after seeing the inner sleeve, tbh

that's right. I saw ilx poster sleeve in this album's cover

I've played this record non-stop for a week (still skipping "Sacrilege").

Guys, I'm not feeling it and it's making me so sad that I'm not because I've loved everything up until now. Maybe it'll grow on me but I just can't get into it yet. ;_;

No. Len. The answer is Len.

― Bobby McFerrin, Quantum Physicist (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, April 20, 2013 2:37 AM (6 days ago)

wait, how did ILM not call this out?

A few listens in on this now, the lead 1-2 punch is just as great as "Zero"/"Heads Will Roll"

This is insane. No way is Subway a punch, let alone one on a par with Heads Will Roll.

right now "Subway" is my favorite song on the album

It's pretty good in a sort of soundscapey way but it feels like it should be way later on the album. Not sure I'm that keen on the breathy vocal Karen O employs on it though, it's kinda flimsy.

the middle of this is my favorite, w the sexy lil slow-motion riff on "under the earth" and the delayed but permanent entrance of the guitar on "slave". i like the dr octagon one altho after his verse it takes forever to end.

mo-mo-mo-mosquito. ca-ca-ca-cabbage.

lol

Grateful to this thread for pushing my expectations so low that when I finally heard this I liked it way more I would have if I'd heard it weeks ago. Obviously it's no It's Blitz! but there's so much to enjoy, in an erratic low-key kind of way.

sound and style here occasionally remind me of that EMA album from 2011, past life martyred saints. what's she been up to, i wonder? that album was well received, but i haven't heard a peep since. discogs tells me she collaborated w leif shackleford (?) on on a father murphy (???) remix a couple months back. huh.

love that dub-style bass line and use of space in "Slave."

"Buried Alive" pwns

i keep thinking there is a "like" button on ilx and wanting to "like" posts. this is one of those cases.

I'll take money

how about bitcoins? (i still don't understand what these are.)

neither do i

i don't want to learn tbh. i'm proud of my ignorance. like an old person.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m740x7sgb71qd9cvuo1_400.gif

just for that I'm making you do shots next time I see you

this gets better every time i play it. "buried alive" such a f'n monster.

yeah, this was kind of a misfire

Show last night. OMG amazing and whoever said that the songs off this album (which I'm not that jazzed about) sounded better live was 100% otm. God, they're so so good live.

this album just sounds ok for me so far ... good not great ... but the title track is awesome imo

album overall sounds to me like early 80s post punk by way of early 2000s. it reminds me of Playgroup kinda.

after my initial enthusiasm, i've settled into digging this album w minor reservations. "area 52" & "these paths" are straight filler, i'm not too fond of "always", and the sequencing makes no sense. ending on a string of softer tracks worked for it's blitz, but here the closing section feels discontinuous and overlong.

it's a terrible cliche, but to my mind, this is a fine album that would have made an excellent 6-8 track EP/mini-LP. so maybe the naysayers were (half) right to begin with, but i like the better tracks enough to call mosquito a success, overall, despite a few missteps. i've always enjoyed albums you have to work at.

current edit:

1 Subway
2 Under the Earth
3 Mosquito
4 Buried Alive
5 Sacrilege
6 Slave
7 Despair
8 Wedding

i like ^

New video. I like the song, but seeing it in this context gives it an anthemic U2 vibe that I can't shake. If anything, the whole album now strikes me as being U2-like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvrjn_pF9tY

Yup, they be encroaching upon U2 territory but I've too much goodwill towards them to be all pissy about it.

thank you for the warning, Elvis. i will steer clear of that video. it's important for me to continue imagining the yeah yeah yeahs as cool, even if i am not smitten with their recent music.

Almost all of my ill feelings toward U2 are bono-related. And those feelings aren't very important to me. Anyway, Karen O > bono, guardian angel up above protect the cool of bands I love, etc.

Sacrilege is a pretty special song. I am smitten with it. I change my mind from what I said four days ago.

Under the earth is the business

I just remembered there was a YYYs album this year.

Important part of my life, obvs.

Saw them Saturday night here at FYF... Still lukewarm on the new album, but they've sorted it out live. Rich / Gold Lion/ Zero / Cheated Hearts all in a row is breathtaking stadium rock hit machine.

I suppose I get punched in the face if I say that SHOW YOUR BONES is their best proper album, right?

Nah, that's a good album.

so much love for 'Despair'.

I'd completely forgotten about the existence of this record.

"Under the Earth" is badass

^^ otm

i think this record has some great songs, but that's counterweighted by having possibly the worst album cover of all time

"possibly the worst" leaves enough leeway for it to actually be the best album cover of all time so I'll allow it