Album: Yeah Yeah Yeah by Cast

Artist Background: Cast are an English rock band from Liverpool, formed in 1992 by John Power (vocals, guitar) and Peter Wilkinson (backing vocals, bass) after Power left The La's and Wilkinson's former band Shack had split. Following early line-ups with different guitarists and drummers, Liam "Skin" Tyson (guitar) and Keith O'Neill (drums) joined Cast in 1993. Emerging from the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s, Cast signed to Polydor Records and their debut album All Change (1995) became the highest selling a... Part of the Liverpool, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Rock movement. Known for Britpop style.

Related Artists: Ocean Colour Scene, The Bluetones, Shed Seven, Dodgy

Music Scene: Part of the Liverpool, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Rock movement. Known for Britpop style.


Karen O once described the feeling leading up to <i>Fever to Tell</i> as being like a cowboy in a Western getting dragged by a mustang while his boot was still stuck in the stirrup: On the one hand, you’re the hero; on the other, the horse is in charge. It’s a neat metaphor in part because it captures the tension of the music itself. Where fellow turn-of-the-millennium New York City bands Interpol and The Strokes sounded (and looked) like four or five guys operating in unbreakable unison, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sounded (and looked) like three people continually yanking each other toward opposing corners of the mat with an energy so barely controlled you’d hold your breath wondering if they could make it through without falling apart.

On their debut full-length album, you could hear aspects of disco (“Y Control”), blues-rock (“Man”) and other sounds that generally privilege the immediacy of the body over the digressions of the mind. (“Cold light/Hot night/Be my heater/Be my lover,” Karen O sings on “Cold Light”—it’s that simple.) But at the heart of the album was the sense of a band that could fill arenas if they wanted to and could manage to avoid the falling apart, while still retaining a bone-thin ferocity that hadn’t touched the mainstream since Nirvana. And in Karen O, they had a primal, magnetic lead vocalist whose raw power seemed driven in part by the shock that she had it in her in the first place. 

Then there was “Maps”, which connected the dirt and noise to concerns as transcendently romantic as Billie Holiday or Elvis singing “Blue Moon”. Written for her then-boyfriend, Angus Andrew of Liars, Karen O later described it as a love song she wanted everyone to hear. She got her wish.

Yeah Yeah Yeah

Cast

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