Reviews
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Show Your Bones
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2006-04-19
When I think about music in the ‘00’s the first thing that springs to my mind is what many labelled the “indie (sound)” revolution. Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, The White Stripes and co were at the forefront of this movement. Enter the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Karen O’s magnificently quirky voice and Nick Zinner’s shrill guitar. They burst onto the scene in 2003 with Fever To Tell, their debut album. It was quirky enough to set them apart from the other “indie”-hipster bands, but not too quirky so they weren’t labelled as “weird”. They walked a fine line and did it so well.
Fast-forward 3 years to 2006 and their follow-up, and greatly anticipated album, Show Your Bones hit the shelves. Things did look promising, “Gold Lion”, the lead single, was a bit of a departure from their previous sound, but I reasoned that it was the lead single and the radio-friendliness of it was to be expected. I was excited just by the album cover of Show Your Bones. Surely, surely this was to be one of the best releases of 2006.
I’m not sure what happened in those short 3 years between Fever To Tell and Show Your Bones but it certainly wasn’t for the better. Did they decide they didn’t want to be the poster band for the indie genre? Did they decide to try and crack the mainstream market, and in doing so decide to remove all their quirky tendencies? Whatever they did it just took the edge off them, everything that was right about Fever To Tell was noticeably absent.
Karen O’s vocals were no longer crazy, loud, brash and eccentric, all that was so present on tracks like “Man” on Fever To Tell. Instead, those intriguing vocals which set her apart, were replaced with a flat, generic voice that any American Idol contestant could deliver. Add to that, the fact that most of the tracks are devoid of Zinner’s screeching guitar. It’s replaced by a boring low key guitar, or worse yet, an acoustic guitar. This isn’t the Yeah Yeah Yeahs that I knew.
Show Your Bones is in no way shape or form a bad album but it isn’t a Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. Someone who wasn’t a big fan of the band will no doubt prefer the new album simply because it’s more accessible, more radio friendly. I’m sure, however, that anyone who was a huge fan of Fever will not like Bones very much at all because of the huge departure in sound. I find it hilarious that the nickname of the producer of Show Your Bones is Squeak E. Clean, because that’s what Show Your Bones is. It’s so squeaky clean that all of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ character seems to have been polished away too.
There are a few bright spots on Show Your Bones. “Gold Lion” is an infectiously catchy song and is done really well. The “Gold Lion” formula seems to have been cloned for a lot of other songs but doesn’t have all the elements that “Gold Lion” has. “Turn Into” is a prime example, it’s just too simple for a Yeah Yeah Yeahs song. It needs the bells and whistles that the good songs from Fever had.
My two favourite tracks from Show Your Bones are “Phenomena” and “Fancy”, mainly because they could have easily slotted into Fever. “Fancy”, in particular, has the same style of screechy guitars as Fever and although Karen doesn’t go crazy with her vocals as I would like her to, it’s still got that quirky edge. “Phenomena” starts out like it could be a White Stripes song, which is praise enough in itself. Add to that an amazing vocal performance by Karen and some will placed post-production sounds and you’ve got the standout track on the album.
Songs to hear: “Gold Lion”, “Phenomena”, “Fancy” Score: 7.0
Score: 7
The review definitely reads a lot lower than the score because the sense of disappointment after just one listen of the album is hard to overcome, hence to give a review of the album alone without comparisons is nigh on impossible. If you are a huge Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan, you will probably like this album, but be prepared for the initial sense of disappointment. Alternatively, if Fever To Tell was too edgy for you, Show Your Bones may fit the bill better.
- Will