Yeah Yeah Yeahs: the ‘debut of the year’?

With half-dozen NME (and other) covers before the debut album was even recorded, the hype went stratospheric and it was a big question how could Yeah Yeah Yeahs respond to it. YYYs are good but can anybody be is as good as the media makes them to? ‘Fever To Tell’ lives up to all the hyperbole… Perhaps, nearly almost.

The YYY’s album is a huge sounding record that drops brave, diverse and not-all drums’n’wires ‘punk’ tracks. The principal threesome uses synths, keys and few other instruments to broaden their basic/live vocabulary; there is variety here, there is sex-appeal at work but it is teasing, toying, there is an image but here to support music and not replace it as point-of-sales… Karen O is from the school of female rockers such as Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders) and Siouxsie Sioux (of … And The Banshees), but her own woman, knowing her mind, body and soul; oh, sista!

‘Fever To Tell’ chimes with ringtones of teen rebellion, it is direct, burning, penetrating and moving… The Brooklynite treesome might have ridden to our attention on the ‘New York Nu-wave’ but this is not a copy of anything in particular but an album that refers to a bunch of influences and yet it stubbornly remains its own. Karen is backed by guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase and the three of them weave a magical sonic web.

Crashing in with ‘Rich’, this is a parade of tunes that deploys funky licks on ‘Date With The Night’ , collossal ‘metal’ riffs on ‘Man’, jagged pop-catchiness of ‘Pin’; all delivered with passion and affection, whether ferociously (on ‘Tick’), raw and sexy (on ‘Cold Light’) or near hysterical on ‘Black Tongue’. The album ends with a trio of tracks – ‘Map’, ‘Y Control’ and ‘Modern Romance’ – all slower than the preceding pace, proving that this band is far more than just a garage outfit.

Sounding very confident, the band didn’t even bother to include their previous singles here, ‘Bang!’ and ‘Machine’. Instead, there is a second part to ‘Modern Romance’ – in itself a huge, epic cut – and a bonus track, ‘Yeah! New York’. Additionally, there is a vid-clip for ‘Date With The Night’… Still, music only last 38 minutes; if it is worth saying, don’t waste time about making a point!

The coolest band on the planet? Right now, probably, because they are strangely fascinating. There is special, feverish charm here… After The White Stripes’ ‘Elephant’, the YYY’s ‘Fever To Tell’ is the second must-have CD of the year!

8.3/10