Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz

© Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs blitzed out in '09.

Although It’s Blitz is the 3rd album released by the NYC art rock trio Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, it is definitely their ultimate triumph. Rocketing the band from cult status into the mainstream, the album boasts powerful hit singles such as the upbeat and oh so sexy “Zero.” Produced by Nick Launay and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, It’s Blitz has dominated the charts, the dance floor, and the airwaves.

This album marks Karen O’s much anticipated return to her Brooklyn roots. Calling upon elements from The Killers and The Strokes (and then blasting past them) It’s Blitz pumps up the synth but also adds a dirty edge that had been previously lost in 2006’s “Show Your Bones.” As the once reigning prom queen of the Williamsburg dance party, Ms. O returns just in time to revive our faith in the much abused (and tired) hipster music scene.

Her excitement and passion resonates through the music, and Nick Zinner’s guitar joins with the vocals to produce eleven bad-ass and blissfully cohesive alternative pop jams. Putting it plain, if MGMT’s former Brooklyn cool kids anthem “Time To Pretend” was in a slap fight with Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Heads Will Roll” the altercation would end with a major coup. With breaths and shrieks and swoons and vibrating synth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs smash and bounce their way back into the heart of every music lover.

It's Blitz radiates the most of its obvious heat during the dancy tracks like “Heads will Roll” and “Zero.” But the sweeter and slower songs are the underdogs of the album, appealing with powerfully clear vocals and nostalgic lyrics. In “Hysteric” Karen O serenades “Flow sweetly, hang heavy, you suddenly complete me” and in “Skeletons” she repeatedly pleads “Love, don't cry.” These are the tracks that fill in the spaces between the frenzied pieces, transfixing you with their quiet emotion. Guitars swell after long stuttered singing and whispered lyrics yank you back and forth between a land of sweet romance and passionate face punches.

By luring us, surprising us, and teasing us, It’s Blitz was able to pull ahead in 2009, reinforcing the fact that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still a mighty force in the music scene. One can only imagine how they'll try to top it.