Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘It’s Blitz’

Yeah Yeah Yeahs burst into my consciousness when the fractured energy of Bang first filled the Xfm airwaves eight years ago. An iconic lead singer with an electrifying presence, a drummer and guitarist who clearly understood that art rock dynamics and sonic experimentation weren’t the enemy of catchy songs, this was a band that couldn’t fail to excite. Their full length debut Fever To Tell certainly delivered on all the promise.

However, 2006’s Show Your Bones met with a cool response from some quarters, Pitchfork saying it “sounds guarded, with very little danger and too few moments of real urgency” and The Guardian claiming “the band are still struggling to raise their game beyond White Stripes-goth-lite”. If casual fans struggled with the direction of that album, it’ll be interesting to see what they make of It’s Blitz!.

Early reports revealed that production was going to be shared between long time knob twiddler David Sitek and the man who helmed 2007’s Is Is EP, Nick Launay. Given the band’s acknowledgement that Launay’s work with Public Image Limited was why they wanted to work with him in the first place, along with Nick Zinner’s recently declared love for vintage synths, it was clear that the album was going to take at least some of its cues from the early 80s. Sure, first tune out of the traps Zero certainly hit everyone in the chest, driven along by squelching synth/heavily effected rumbling guitar line, its dynamic structure and feel coming across like the mutant dancefloor cousin of Muse’s Map Of The Problematique, but once you get past that first song those influences come thick and fast.

Heads Will Roll shamelessly ‘borrows’ from PiL’s This Is Not A Love Song; Skeleton Me is the missing track from OMD’s Architecture And Morality (it even has a faux martial /highland pipers bit like in Maid Of Orleans); while the scratchy guitars and syncopated bassline of Dragon Queen funks along nicely. All of a sudden Zero starts to look like the band throwing everyone a bit of a curveball.

Elsewhere, the spirit of Fever To Tell can be felt on Dull Life and Shame And Fortune, the former the only track on the album that comes close to matching the tempo of Zero, the latter featuring some serious fuzz and a yelping vocals. Those looking for this album’s Maps or Cheating Hearts should check out Runaway. With a simple piano intro, some great power ballad drumming, ebowed guitar, tortured strings and synths that could have been lifted straight off Duran Duran’s first album (check out To The Shore), it features one of Karen O’s most melancholy lyrics “I was feeling sad / can’t help looking back / want you to stay / want you to be my prize”. Easily their best chance for a massive hit single.

When the band announced the title of the album some hoped this was going to be their hardest record yet, few would have imagined it likely they might be referencing the club that birthed the new romantic movement. While I’d still like to hear an album that is 10 different versions of Machine, to these ears Its Blitz! is the sound of the band appropriating the best bits of a much maligned era and effortlessly creating something that sounds new and vital. No mean trick, but it’ll be interesting to see if everyone else is convinced.

My Morning Jacket 'Live From Las Vegas At The Palms'

It’s no secret that I’m a longtime fan of My Morning Jacket, if you want to know about the transcendent power of rock music there are currently few finer live bands and certainly they are in my top three live acts I would recommend to any music fan (full list coming soon). For my money their 2005 John Leckie produced album Z was pretty much faultless, although many fans prefer the reverb soaked, recorded-in-a-grain-silo sound of their first two albums and the major label debut It Still Moves, Z is the one that finally comes closest to capturing the full extent of their majesty (although the live album/dvd Okonosos is probably the best starting point for new fans). So the release last year’s eagerly awaited follow up Evil Urges was something of a disappointment.

Whereas in the past they’ve successfully implemented elements of reggae (Phone Went West) and ska (Off The Record) and they’ve always had a lot of soul, the funk, r’nb and falsetto experiments found the band misfiring. That and a few slight songs with cheesy lyrics marred what otherwise should have been the album that crossed over.

Skip forward seven months to this iTunes only curio recorded live in the state of the art Palm Casino studio in Las Vegas. There’s a suitably lounge-tinged feel here that, given the city’s place in the whole rat pack mythos, seems appropriate. This cocktail vibe is enhanced by picking five of the more laid back and quieter tracks from either end of the band’s catalogue to date, which gives the six song EP a consistency that it might otherwise be lacking. Opener Tonight I Want To Celebrate With You employs the omnichord that worked to such great effect on Touch Me I Think I’m Going To Scream Pt 2 , but rather than go with the latter’s gentle electro groove it takes on a country flavour with some pedal steel guitar. It’s this country rock and cocktail theme that runs through all the tracks here, bringing out the AM friendly side of the band, and although it’s certainly not the reason why I love the band it is something they do well, and stripped of the wailing guitars it serves to showcase the quality of Jim James songwriting.

New tune Dear Wife could happily have sat along side the better tracks on the last album but the standout is the Tennessee Fire's They Ran, a lesson in restraint with sweet wordless, backing vocals that to these ears has the same feel as The Flamingos version of I Only Have Eyes For You.

As a companion piece to Evil Urges it’s a strong offering (and at only £4.74 a bargain), although fans of the band’s more rocking side (assuming they already own Okonosos) may want to check out some of the recordings from the Madison Sqare Garden NYE show as well. That and keep your fingers crossed for rescheduled UK dates.