Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!

Little Shadow is beyond gorgeous.

Album of the year. I'm embarassingly hyping calling it.

― David Bentley: Rhythm Ace (Matt DC), Monday, 23 February 2009 23:26 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

BEST FUCKING NIGHT EVER

― the pinefox, Monday, 23 February 2009 23:29 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol, told

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/Yeah-yeah-yeahs-its-blitz.jpg

i loved the first few EP's and really liked the debut, sold back Show Your Bones. d/l now and hope i can get back into this band.

man imo show your bones was so much better than their debut

nah it wasn't but it is a good album.

Fever to Tell edges Show Your Bones for me, but they're both really good.

they're the second best rock band this decade tho, i celebrate the entire discography

#1 deerhoof 4ever

YES that is the art work, here are the tracks:

1. Zero 4:25
2. Heads Will Roll 3:41
3. Soft Shock 3:53
4. Skeletons' 5:02
5. Dull Life 4:08
6. Shame and Fortune 3:31
7. Runaway 5:13
8. Dragon Queen 4:02
9. Hysteric 3:50
10. Little Shadow 3:57

that is a cool album cover

no way are the better than Spoon, IMO.

x-post

i like them as a sorta mellow half classic rock band and as this nu blondie or w/e much more than i like them as snotty rawr punks

#1 deerhoof Life Without Buildings 4ever

Wow. This album is pretty bad. Well, at least 50% of it is good. There is some really unimaginative and boring filler on this album, though. Fuck. I was hoping they'd claw people's faces off with this one. :(

o_0

'hysteric' is incredible. i really really like this, and i need to listen to it more

Heads Will Roll is fantastic but the rest is hmmmmm

1. Zero 4:25
2. Heads Will Roll 3:41
3. Skeletons 5:02
4. Hysteric 3:50
5. Little Shadow 3:57

^^^ would make a fantastic EP.

runaway and dragon queen are outstanding as well tho

i like them as a sorta mellow half classic rock band and as this nu blondie or w/e much more than i like them as snotty rawr punks

Yeah I'd go with that - didn't really rate the first album, really liked the second and love this one. But the bits I liked the most on Show Your Bones were the gentler and more expansive bits (Turn Into, Dudley, Honeybear) which explains why I like this one so much.

Soft Shock is lovely as well.

yeah a lot of these songs have that effortless upward motion like "turn into" (maybe my favorite song by them after "maps") that just empties your stomach out

It's a re-interpretation of "Blue Monday".

Definitely something else in there too. I'm not quite sure what, though.

Reminds me a lot of Rihanna's Shut Up and Drive - obviously because of the Blue Monday bassline but also the overall sound.

"Heads Will Roll" - GAD!

i like them as a sorta mellow half classic rock band and as this nu blondie or w/e much more than i like them as snotty rawr punks

my favourite YYYs stuff will probably always be the really, really kick-ass RAWR ones - 'bang', 'date with the night' - but i don't think i'd want them to go back to that at this point - agree w/matt that it's their most expansive material which seems most natural now ('turn into' is just gorgeous..)

on one listen i'm pretty happy w/this album but i'll need to go back when not so distracted

i'll also have to go back to show your bones b/c my general impression was of a middling album bookended by an incredible two singles

I feel like people never give the YYYs guitar player enough credit. He's incredible. Seeing them live I'm always just kind of amazed that he can create that amount of sound with one guitar and control it so well.

i agree he's a huge part of the band's appeal to me. i was telling jordan last night that one of the things i love about them is how the guitars tend to drive the melody, giving karen o room to do whatever she wants to do, and she's got this great range of emotions she's capable of

I've listened to this two or three times now and I really can't tell what's a guitar and what isn't in a lot of places.

lol 2000s

It feels like so much more of a studio record than the others - I really like the bit in Zero when Karen O does a high-pitched yelp and it's treated to sound like a toy raygun.

I've listened to this two or three times now and I really can't tell what's a guitar and what isn't in a lot of places.

yeah i want a proper quality version asap. actually can't even deal with 192kbpbpbps any more.

Since when did everyone on this board started getting all bitrate-nazi? To me its like when people say they love whiskey and bluff about how well they can tell the difference between a good whiksey and a bad one and in reality they cant even tell the difference between black label and red label.

troo punk whisky bitrates 4eva!

lol

I don't want to just throw it in a disco synth rock ghetto, because it's a little more expansive than that. There's some real atmosphere. It's more moody than "Zero" or "Heads Will Roll" would suggest.

― Johnny Fever

more livebloggin: kinda disagree w/ mr. the dr. fever up there. both "zero" & "heads" have moody/atmospheric elements, and the rest of the record isn't a huge departure. "soft shock" and "dull life" keep that energy up on the 1st half. only track in the opening batch that doesn't quite work for me is "skeletons", which IS much more moody. celtic-y sounding cloud guitar loop bugs me, and it's clearly the musical focus.

even on the most upbeat tracks, everything seems softened, blurred, half rubbed out (heh). drums hit like marshmallows, guitar and bass churn around like soup underneath everything, even karen - vocals are much less shrill & edgy than on other records.

2nd act is less immediate than the first, but not a huge departure. "shame and fortune" kinda reminds me of "machine" for some reason, though much cleaned up (dumbed down). LOVE the talking heads/tom tom club guitars in "dragon queen". and the big, bassy synth/guitar swells. "hysteric" is GORGEOUS. 1st downtempo number to totally sweep me away (like madonna!). love the total shamelessness of "you suddenly complete me." so nice. plus "little shadow", too, which sounds just like it says.

great record. by far the best thing they've done yet. last two songs might be the best things here, and definitely the most moody, atmospheric, spare, downbeat. kinda nice the way the record builds down to them, initially setting you up for something very different (but implying the softness nonetheless).

favorites = little shadow, hysteric, heads will roll, soft shock, dragon queen (NNITO, but probably)

got a little choked up before "little shadow" was over, which basically never happens no more

yeah i want a proper quality version asap. actually can't even deal with 192kbpbpbps any more.

Haha I think it'll sound a bit like that even at a higher bitrate.

Seriously tho, has any of you bitrate-nazis considered it might not be the bitrate but Sitek's production? He seems to like turning everything he touches into walls of sound so I wouldnt be surprised if any of you couldnt tell the difference of a guitar and synth in the loudest moments even in lossless quality.

^ this. doesn't sound low-quality rip, sounds like an intentionally atmospheric production. eno damage

yeah it sounded like the right rip to me, the drums are really crisp

i'm excited!

hits are crisp when they want to be ("zero", "soft shock"), esp at the center, but often surrounded by big bruisy thuds that overwhelm the attack ("heads will roll"). i like the contrast between rough and soft, but do wish the textural guitars had a bit more tooth overall.

heavy "we float" vibe to a lot of this (i.e., pj harvey circa stories from the city...)

i love that song

me too

ppl whove heard this and are not fuckin with "dragon queen" are crazy

"hysteric" is like, the guitar waves during the chorus are so soft and subtle. it took me a little bit to catch them tho

one of their best songs ever no doubt

good live blog btw contenderizer

The last 45 seconds of "Hysteric" are the most beautiful I've heard in a song this year. OTM on the "We Float" vibe -- only better.

truly fantastic album and I never cared for YYYs before that. I still get the "you are chrome" line stuck in my head all the time - sounds so badass

"in your room" may not have the born-to-be-wild declamation of zero or heads will roll but is better than them imo

of the nu-wave class these guys came the closest to making a Parallel Lines - sure beats Tonight, Our Love To Admire and First Impressions of Earth - but I wish I understood why they take at least three years between albums because it really cuts down their momentum.

I also don't get why "Soft Shock" wasn't a single.

christ, in the time it took YYYs to release three albums, Blondie was already up to The Hunter

wanna see something bizarrely effective?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KNfgkIVvyg

Soft Shock is probably my favourite song on the album, that or Little Shadow.

I'm happy to call It's Blitz their Parallel Lines. Really looking forward to their Eat To The Beat, which is my favourite Blondie album these days.

thank u kraudive for reminding me of how awesome this recors is, top to tail

that or Little Shadow

love "little shadow" so damn much

"Dull Life" owns

'Dragon Queen' is the only one I find I want to skip, less because it's outright bad but because it doesn't quite fit. Otherwise this is still an amazing album.

"dragon queen" is one of my favourites

it's so light and untethered

I think it sounds kinda flimsy and fish-out-of-water.

I think it sounds bright and buoyant

I'm much more likely to skip "Short Shock" & "Skeletons"

Quite possible that It's Blitz is their Parallel Lines.

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, September 1, 2012 10:50 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Soft Shock is probably my favorite on this! Geez I really need to give this a spin

i keep calling Soft Shock "In Your Room", which i think is a sign of how often i just let this album play through instead of picking individual titles out

My favorite song on this is probably "Runaway" but the song I sing the most is "Dragon Queen"; that chorus just embedded itself into my brain

love the endless needling guitars in it and the DUB bassline

I'm still hoping they release an album / DVD of "Stop the Virgens" because there were some great songs in that. songs I can still sing in my head from only hearing them once, live, last October.

there were a ton of cameras there shooting but so far it's only yielded a "making of" mini-doc on the Creators Project website.

"dragon queen" is fantastic, easily one of my favorite tracks on the album

album is kind of backloaded, imo. not taking anything away from "zero" and "heads will roll", but the album's strongest stretch is the run from "runaway" through "little shadow"

Not enough people repping for "hysteric" after the revive. So I'm doing that.

seeing people repping for so many different songs just remind me how rich this album is. Might be worth polling it

Make it happen. Could be exciting.

Backloaded, huh? I think it's too short an album to be loaded in either direction, and besides, it starts out so awesome. I even love the Clannad-isms of "Skeletons" and the ever-shifting "Dull Life." If anything, the strong ending to the record is a real treat. Anyway, it's hard to conceive of an album as backloaded when the first two songs are "Zero" and "Heads Will Roll." That's like saying, I dunno, that the first Boston record starts out OK, but really gets going with "Let Me Take You Home Tonight."