Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Fever To Tell (Interscope ’03) Rating: B+
Few bands have been hyped in recent years more than the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who garnered tons of press even before this, their full-length debut album. The buzz was caused due to two EPs (self-titled and Machine) and some impressive live performances, making expectations reach a fever pitch by the time of this album’s release. Which was a little unfair, as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a young band who are still learning how to write songs. Still, this is a fine if flawed debut album that does a good job of capturing the band’s strengths. The band has only two instrumentalists so they’d better be good, and fortunately they are, as Brian Chase’s bottomed out, jackhammer beats form a solid foundation for each song, while Nick Zinner is a cool, creative guitarist, often playing with a grungey distortion but also having learned from the likes of “white noise” specialists such as Sonic Youth as well as more melodic contemporaries such as The Strokes. Zimmer often multi-tracks his guitar parts to fill in the open spaces, while keyboards/synthesizers also at times beef up the band’s sound. Yet the obvious star of this band and album is Karen O., whose horny cat-in-heat vocals are something of an acquired taste. However, her charismatic sincerity and confident intonations are likely to win you over in the end. I know that I was skeptical at first, being underwhelmed after one or two listens, especially given all the hype. I kept listening, though, all the while trying to keep an open mind (really, disliking a band because they’ve been praised a lot is just stupid), and now I count myself a fan. That said, though Fever To Tell delivers consistent quality, if only for a fittingly brief half hour, none of these songs are drop-dead great, though most are certainly very good, with “Rich,” “Black Tongue,” and “Pin” standing out as highlights. “Man” and “Cold Light” are also notable, if only because it makes obvious influences such as P.J. Harvey and the John Spencer Blues Explosion, while the dreamy “Maps” and the droney ballad “Modern Romance” (both of which appear at the end of the album, where things slow down considerably, as the album is some ways is sequenced as two EPs, which isn’t surprising given that’s what the band had done before) hint at a future versatility that’s only glimpsed at on Fever To Tell. Truth is, though there’s much to like here, it’s only in a fun style-over-substance kinda way, and I get the feeling that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are just starting to flex their muscles and realize how good they can be. Perhaps their next album or the one after that will deliver on the greatness that their potential seems to promise. They should’ve ditched the dragged out ending to “No No No” and the “bonus track,” though. One final note: I had no intention of buying this album but the $6.99 price at Best Buy was too good to pass up. What a novel concept! Make cds affordable and people will buy them! Perhaps the record company/retain chain geniuses should mull that over as they’re prosecuting the next 12 year old for the “crime” of downloading music.

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