Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "It's Blitz"

"Zero" (Letterman, 2009)

Between last year’s DEAR SCIENCE from TV on the Radio, and the upcoming IT’S A BLITZ from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, there’s a sense that these musicians are privy to some modern recreation of the music from the late 70’s and 80’s. These albums pay homage to the era’s dance music, stripping away the gluttony and excesses that doomed a lot of this music to novelty. IT’S A BLITZ is far from profound, and nowhere near as epic as DEAR SCIENCE, but it's a good time. Karen O's dance-punk foxiness sells this change of venue for the cult of Yeah Yeah Yeahs nicely. Some of those cultists will probably repeat their stock complaints of selling out, the same ones you hear anytime an artist tries something new and fails to change the world with their efforts, but feel free to ignore the haters and their tight-assed nerd sensibilities.