Dance clubs have become the new rock n’ roll clubs. There is something oddly appealing and glamorous about icy keyboards, drum machines and sampling. The music is meant to be disposable and detached, but in the right hands it can be exquisitely emotional. With their third full-length album, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have shed the fractured guitars and guttural howls of their earlier records in favor of dense collages of sound. It works really well.
The cover of It’s Blitz! depicts an egg being crushed in the palm of Karen O’s hand. It’s a metaphor for the entire record. O has rarely sounded so vulnerable. On the opening track, “Zero,” she coos seductively, but her sweet singing style masks obvious pain. When she sings the refrain of “cry cry cry,” her inflection rises in short stabbing bursts. She is able to bend, twist and contort her voice into whatever mood she is trying to convey. She never overly emotes, so you have to listen for the subtle breaks in tone, the brief shrieks, and the lapses of fury.
The electronic sound is Karen O’s canvas. It was a major risk to trade in Nick Zinner’s guitar for keyboards, but the risk paid off tremendously. On the slower tracks, the ambient drone of synth is uncomfortably intimate. “Skeletons” is especially wrenching, with a simple constant synth line paired with a mournful Irish flute. The lockstep military drumming of Brian Chase adds a touch of paranoia. The album was partially produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, and the influence is obvious. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs aren’t quite as avant guarde here, but they string together electronic instruments to create an expanse of sound.
The more upbeat numbers are interesting as well. Zinner’s guitar work in “Dragon Queen” sounds like something Chic would have recorded in the late 70s. His guitar bops along, highlighting O’s vocals. There is a real groove to his playing that was hard to decipher before. It’s weird because The Yeah Yeah Yeahs aren’t exactly known for having an ear for pop hooks, but they are in full bloom. The glittering keyboards that flourish behind the guitar hit just the right note. When bands attempt a new sound, they usually do it half-assed. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have become students of electronic music, and the result is great songs.
Electronic music often gets a bad rap. It’s synthetic and disposable and yadda yadda. We’ve all heard the arguments. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs use the disposable medium of dance music as a way to mask their emotions. In “Heads Will Roll,” she is calling for your head, but at the same time commands you to dance until your death. What is she suggesting here? Perhaps that most of the club kids that we mock and deride dance to cover up something deeper. In the middle of a throbbing dance floor, it’s really hard to hear yourself think.