Yeah, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still cool.
A Yeah Yeah Yeahs dance album is like an airbrushed Obama T-shirt: you didn’t know you needed one until you got it. Though It’s Blitz will please longtime fans of the Yeahs’ signature drone-and-crash rock ‘n’ roll, there are plenty of unexpected tracks here fit for a dark club of shimmying hip kids. The practically perfect opener, ‘Zero,’ pulses with sexy, thumping backbeats behind Karen O’s orgasmic wails and pummels right through into ‘Soft Shock,’ which artfully intersperses big, layered keys with danceable, chaotic guitar riffs. ‘Heads Will Roll’ convinces its listener that this is indeed an ass-shaking affair, with O demanding ‘Off with your head/Dance till you’re dead.’ However, It’s Blitz is far-reaching, with ‘Shame and Fortune,’ a bona fide disco-inspired track, and ‘Hysteric,’ a breathy ballad about fast love. It’s no surprise that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs seamlessly shift into new territory with every album—always evolving while creating a new standard of cool.
