As explosive as they seem on the surface,
the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
are also an ambitious, thoughtful band and keep pushing the boundaries of their music. They moved from the rawness of their early EPs to the polished art-
punk
of their first full-length in just over two years, and this drive to keep topping themselves led to breakthroughs like
Fever to Tell
's gorgeous
ballad
, and hit single,
"Maps."
After taking three years to follow up
, and scrapping many of the songs that they wrote while on tour supporting that album,
returned with
Show Your Bones
, the yin to their debut album's yang. While
and
"Maps"
dealt with falling in love (and being more than a little freaked out about it),
is a breakup album. If
had made this album earlier in their career,
Karen O
's cutting lyrics and
Nick Zinner
's choppy guitars would've sliced the poor ex to pieces; after all, on
"Bang,"
from their self-titled debut EP, they (hilariously) wrote off a lame one-night stand with "as a f*ck, son, you sucked."
, however, tries to go much deeper than that. The album's rockers are surprisingly restrained: the cryptic lead single
"Gold Lion"
(sounding like a mash-up of
Love and Rockets
'
"No New Tale to Tell"
Siouxsie and the Banshees
"Peek a Boo"
), which eventually worms its way into listeners' heads, is surprisingly subdued compared to previous singles. Aptly enough for the kind of album it is,
' softer songs are some of its strongest:
"Dudley"
sounds a bit like
Sonic Youth
covering the
nursery rhyme
"Hush, Little Baby,"
while
"Cheated Hearts"
is a big, rousing
in the vein of
And, as on
, the band loosens up as
unfolds.
"Mysteries"
is a jealous
cowpunk
number that sounds tossed off, but has more bite and fun in it than the rest of the album. On
"Turn Into,"
they take this twangy sound and turn it sweet, resulting in one of their best songs yet. However, too often heartache overtakes the band's sass and attitude on
. Actually, sass and attitude sound like the perfect antidote to heartache -- and, quite possibly, what ails
. ~ Heather Phares