Categories : Featured Review, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 4.5/5 Released: March 28, 2006 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
It was more than a little disconcerting to find out that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sophomore effort, Show Your Bones, was going to be a break-up album detailing Karen O’s split with director Spike Jonze. More than a few artists have fallen prone to the trap of self-indulgence when using their art to detail their real life heartbreaks. Luckily, Karen O’s real life drama – not to mention an exponential growth by the band themselves – makes Show Your Bones a follow-up that is altogether different, and better, than Fever to Tell.
With Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes making second albums that were almost carbon copies of their debuts, people were reluctant to get their hopes too high for YYY’s second crack at it. Resisting the temptation to play it safe, the New York threesome took on a new approach this time around. Karen O’s shrill vocals are subtler and softer, and at the same time, more confident. Nick Zinner’s guitar work is less frenzied, more focused, but still defiantly simple and purposeful. Brian Chase’s drumming is far easier to understand on this album, as he is no longer interested in taking songs over, and is content to be the band’s pulse. Fever to Tell showcased the band’s clashing personalities with striking results. Bones presents a new ideal – the band as a cohesive unit, and stronger than ever.
The band is at their best midway through the album, on the surprisingly pop inspired one-two punch of ‘Cheated Hearts’ and ‘Dudley.’ The former is an especially gorgeous song, as well as a biting reminder of the tension that exists within the band. Right after O sings “I think that I’m bigger than this sound,†Zinner replies with a biting riff that almost, just almost, puts her in her place.
With more complete songs, and a more focused style, Show Your Bones delivers not only a Yeah Yeah Yeahs mission statement, but an early consideration for album of the year.
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