In life, there are those that follow the rules and those that bend them. The band Yeah Yeah Yeahs would fall in the latter category.
The group began in Ohio, where vocalist Karen O met guitarist Nick Zinner while at Oberlin College. The duo later met fellow band mate Brian Chase in New York and thus was born a band that infused garage rock with heady vocals.
They continue this sound on their most recent release.
Show Your Bones is highly melodic with a softer vibe compared to their trademark warrior-like reverberance. Many songs are easy to sing along with and even easier to remember. Although the overall feel is softer than previous releases, there's nothing quiet about it. Tracks like "Dudley," whose melody is heavily based on the lullaby "Hush Little Baby," are still loud due to Chase's percussive rhythms and the doubling of the melody on guitar.
In conjunction with strong melodies, one would hope there would be equally strong lyrics, but this is not the case. As is common with many bands, most of the tracks on Show Your Bones consist of several lines that loop in a Houdini-like hypnotizing helical. Other lyrics are just plain confusing. Lyrics like "We were overlooked / Like a puzzle book," and "The face ain't making what the mouth needs," must be profound in some way, but they don't immediately mean anything to me.
This flaw isn't a deciding factor with Show Your Bones. It's really the combination of vocals and instruments that makes this album fantastic. Yeah Yeah Yeahs invoke the style of fellow garage rockers The Strokes, but what The Strokes don't have is a vocalist like Karen O.
Karen O fleshes out otherwise mundane melodies with character on Show Your Bones. She does not play around with the vocals like in past exploits, but instead chooses to stick to the melodic notes with some "oohs" but few soul-baring screams.
In contrast, other songs are more indicative of what listeners have come to expect from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs's sound -- heavy guitar layering, screaming female vocals and a dark tone.
On the other hand, there are some tracks when O's voice and the group as a whole sound very young and innocent. One such song is "Way Out," a cutesy ditty that's unbelievably sing-able and catchy. This is an observation that some may find acceptable due to the fact that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a very recent and young band, but these youthful intonations protrude from an album that is largely refined with few ragged edges.
While Show Your Bones is an irrefutable example of musical talent and brilliance, it's also a good example of a beaten band. Let me explain. When Yeah Yeah Yeahs released their first full-length, Fever To Tell, there was an undeniable edge to their sound, an edge that was clever in the navigation of its unfinished and rough musical trim.
There was something raw in Karen O's vocals and something primal in Brian Chase and Nick Zinner's guitar riffs. Fever to Tell showcased the Yeah Yeah Yeahs anything-can-happen, no-holds-barred attitude. They were wild and powerful but Show Your Bones sounds like this misfit group was disciplined one too many times and beaten into conformity.
The easy listening quality of this second release is what one would expect from a soft-core Indie group teetering on the edge of pop doom. It's not that the melodies are boring or the guitars and percussion uninspired, the problem is that Show Your Bones is too polished and clean, a gift-wrapped package topped off with a neat little bow.
Admittedly this new turn for Yeah Yeah Yeahs could simply be the next step in this band's evolution; it's difficult to tell in a band that has only one full-length album under its belt. Perhaps that raw sound on Fever to Tell was simply a sign of immaturity and not a hallmark of a controlled chaotic vision. Perhaps Show Your Bones, as the title states, is an effort to show what's really at the heart of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
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