There have been whisperings around the watering holes of Camden and the Industry-populated sushi bars of the capital that the latest offering from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s (“It’s Blitz!” released in April this year) isn’t as good as previous albums. It does make you wonder whether they were listening to the piece of music. Or perhaps they had sushi in their ears. After all, it’s very easy to dismiss bands who start off raw, young and full of spit and sawdust and then appear to sell out to the mainstream by embracing a smidgen of commercialism. And if that band is of punk rocker heritage with a first album of the likes of the raw, noisy Fever to Tell (2003) then that makes the leap on to the scenester bitching bandwagon even easier. “It’s too slick”, “The production’s too big”, “They’re too pop”. It always amazes me when people expect bands to stay the same as when they recorded their first ever demo in their next-door neighbour’s garage.

It’s Blitz! is the transition the band have been working towards (consciously or not) right through all their releases – at least since the end of Fever to Tell when they start gently introducing bigger production and more electronic elements. You can see this album coming all the way through Show Your Bones (2006) and the Is Is EP (2007) as the distorted vocals lessen and the sound becomes cleaner and more electric. No, this album doesn’t have the boys noise big driving guitars and drums of some of their previous releases and that will be enough for some people to bin it straight away, but the forces that pulled the band away from their original punk roots through to where they are now have also spawned some really beautiful, unusual tracks that maybe wouldn’t have been developed before – Skeletons, Hysteric, Little Shadow. And although this album doesn’t rely so much on noise, there’s still plenty of aggression and power and Karen O’s sultry, sexy, unearthly vocal journeys through a range of pitches, squeaks and noises will still keep you wishing you had her, or you were her, right through to the end. This woman can use her voice to some seriously devastating effect.

The album kicks off with ‘Zero’, an upbeat, driving, sexy opener with the charisma and wake up call of an albino dwarf in leathers brandishing a whip. The tune increases in intensity after the beat comes in and continues to take you up level after level through open wide synths, some hard guitaring and Karen O’s siren wails. ‘Heads Will Roll’ is constructed around an 80s beat, opening with some progidy-esque keyboards and ‘Soft Shock’ is one of those songs that builds and builds so that whilst it may have started out like a plain bagel by the end it’s full of smoked salmon and cream cheese and you’ll be loving every earful. ‘Skeletons’ brings to mind a marriage of Spiritualised and Primal Scream in its slow, rocking, chill out style and it’s the first of the tracks on the album that is verging on ‘beautiful’. ‘Dull Life’, once it gets going, will make you think you’re listening to a Franz Ferdinand track but don’t let that put you off, remember who’s in control of the microphone here!

‘Hysteric’ is really the stand out track for me and seems to have inspired a totally different type of love than I would normally associate with listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Perhaps I’m a sucker for the lyrics: “flow sweetly, hang heavy, you suddenly complete me, you suddenly complete me” sung in such a soft, dreamy vocal or perhaps it’s the balmy, lullaby nature of the song but it’s just gorgeous. Of course I don’t know what the lyrics mean, they could be referring to a hanging basket or a water feature but it sounds to my ears like a particularly well-penned love song. Along similar lines is ‘Little Shadow’ – this one has more drama and a little less substance but with the dramatic drum hits and the gradual build it’s guaranteed to get even the hardest of hearts, right there. ‘Shame and Fortune’ is a bit more lively and driving and has the chaos of some of the band’s older tracks as well as being less electronic in substance.

If you have in anyway been put off listening to this album by anyone who swears they have an inside scoop, then repent at once and go and buy a copy (or listen to it on Spotify). Ignore the haters – this album is not along the lines of old tracks like Date With The Night no, but it’s got equal drama and will give you just as much gut twist and energy as YYY’s albums always do. The only difference with this one is it’s all just a bit less obvious so you just won’t see it coming.

‘Zero’, the opening track on It’s Blitz!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGxBTsmuRIk[/youtube]