Rating - 7.7 It's Blitz!, along with its just add water artwork, would have been a more appropriate introduction for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's 2003 breakthrough album Fever To Tell. That album, which featured Karen O squealing and moaning like a nympho and Nick Zinner's unforgiving guitar attack, was a welcomed take on NYC's revived punk-art scene. And just when you thought they were a bunch of brats making a big noise, Karen put on her Chrissie Hynde pants and delivered one of the most achingly beautiful tracks of the last decade, "Maps." While the YYYs will probably never reach another moment as serendipitous, the good news is they're not even trying.
From the opening moments of It's Blitz!, the difference is noticeable. The usual wall of buzz and feedback is replaced on "Zero" with a ping-ponging synth- the type of sound a fire alarm might make 50 years from now. And that seems to be their new direction, less late-70's underground punk and more studio pysch-pop ala MGMT. Karen O still sounds as sensual as ever, albeit more contained, and has finally found lyrics to coincide with her post-glam persona. "Dripping with alchemy/Shiver stop shivering/The glitter's all wet/You're all chrome" she sings on "Heads Will Roll," and you can almost see the drag(on) queens dancing.
Granted, even at their most raucous, the distance between the punk and rave scenes is not nearly as far as it once was; they're both about exclusion and identity, and it isn't hard to imagine Karen O spending equal time in dance clubs and rock halls. So perhaps more than a conscious decision, this album was made on the notion of the moment. It's not going to become an "instant classic," but it does just about sum up what it means to be a band fighting for attention, space, and credibility in 2009. Equal parts M83, Cat Power, and The Raconteurs, It's Blitz is an avatar for greater things, and it has a couple great songs to boot.
Granted, even at their most raucous, the distance between the punk and rave scenes is not nearly as far as it once was; they're both about exclusion and identity, and it isn't hard to imagine Karen O spending equal time in dance clubs and rock halls. So perhaps more than a conscious decision, this album was made on the notion of the moment. It's not going to become an "instant classic," but it does just about sum up what it means to be a band fighting for attention, space, and credibility in 2009. Equal parts M83, Cat Power, and The Raconteurs, It's Blitz is an avatar for greater things, and it has a couple great songs to boot.
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