Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It’s Blitz! (Interscope)

When Yeah Yeah Yeahs released debut disc Fever to Tell, frontwoman Karen O was full of her age, 24. Six years later, the New York trio’s third LP, It’s Blitz!, is only as subversive as its cover image. Synth-pop opener “Zero” busts out the glitter, while the Donna Summer/Cher backbeat of “Heads Will Roll” spurs on Boys & Girls with kohl-rimmed eyes. Therein lies the hitch: Yeah Yeah Yeahs have made a dance record. Nick Zinner’s jagged guitar now takes a back seat to a synthesizer. The singer Kills the scene (“Dull Life”) and duets with TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe (“Dragon Queen”). Zippo ballads scatter (“Skeletons,” “Little Shadow,” “Runaway”), but only “Hysteric” approaches “Maps.” Blitz is clean, easy, and catchy. The art is erased, but that strobe-light sweat smells just as sweet as spandex drowning in PBR.

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This article appears in April 3 • 2009.

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