It's Blitz! by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
It's Blitz! is the third studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on March 9, 2009 by Interscope Records. It was originally set for release on April 13, 2009. However, after being leaked to the Internet on February 22, the release date was pushed forward to March 9 for the digital version and March 31 for the physical version. The album was produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, Public Image Ltd), along with TV on the Radio's David Andrew Sitek. It spawned three singles: "Zero", "Heads Will Roll", and "Skeletons". It's Blitz! was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards. According to Nick Launay, one of the two producers, the recording of the album was unusual for being largely written and created in the studio at a time when record labels have cut back considerably on production budgets. The few songs the band did take along to the first sessions were later altered significantly. Launay described a typical session as follows: Brian would play lots of different drumbeats and we'd record it, chop it up and then make a groove loop out of it. Nick would then just jam to it, and we'd come up with an interesting rhythm part. Karen would listen to that and come up with a vocal melody and then suddenly everything would fall into place. The album sessions took place over several months in 2008, during which time there were numerous breaks "to get inspired". It's Blitz! received universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 36 reviews. It's Blitz! was ranked as the second best album of the year by Spin, third by NME and twelfth by Pitchfork Media and Rhapsody. Both NME and Spin also listed the song "Zero" as the best of the year.
A great Yeah Yeah Yeahs song can make you feel like you’re on top of the world and have no idea what you’re doing at the same time. The difference here—on their first album since 2013’s <i>Mosquito</i>—is a sense of maturity: Instead of tearing up the club, they’re reminiscing about it (“Fleez”), having traded their endless nights for mornings as bright and open as a flower (“Different Today”). And after spending 20 years seesawing between their aggressive side and their sophisticated, synth-pop side, they’ve found a sound that genuinely splits the difference (“Burning”). Listening to Karen O’s poem about watching the sunset with her young son (“Mars”), two thoughts come to mind. One is that they’ve always been kids, this band. The other is that the secret to staying young is growing up.
