Fever To Tell
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2003
Album Summary
Fever to Tell is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 29, 2003, by Interscope Records. It was produced by David Andrew Sitek and mixed by Alan Moulder. Four singles were issued, the first being "Date with the Night" followed by "Pin", "Maps" and "Y Control". Fever to Tell was both a critical and commercial success; it has sold one million copies worldwide.
WikipediaMaps is really the only thing this album has going for it and it's a good song, not a great one. The rest is mostly the worst aspects of indie meets a really toothless brand of punk rock I suppose you could call it. Karen O has a pretty good voice. The other guys are...present. It's a shame the band didn't write more than one decent song for her to sing.
Wicked vocals from a talented female singer, high energy sound, loved it. Want to listen again.
The first word that comes to mind when describing this album is "fun." It's all kinds of post-punk, neo-grunge, alt-rock, fem-fronted fun. It's pretty much right up my alley. That said, it does get docked a star because some of the songs have amazingly dumb lyrics while others have amazingly brilliant lyrics. But, overall, it's a super great record.
The worst type of indie music, all drums and attitude but with very little soul.
This is an album that seems to be magically created. Everything works, and the three of them just have an out of world chemistry. An absolute superb and instant classic from the golden age of indie.
Great early 00's rock album. Rich is a really good punk song. Early album is filled with some good punk music, but they kind of run together a bit. Maps and Y Control are stand outs for sure
That's interesting to know this album and nowadays it's absolutely obvious their influence on modern rock songs. However, listening to it today, I can't see so many qualities in these songs. They are nice to listen to, but nothing more.
Yeah yeah yeahs, I know Karen O, and two fellas Amazing wall of noise.
Exciting album. Exciting times! Part of the Post Strokes/Hives breaking the indie wall and making music fun again. Big Beat and electronica no longer felt new, Nu Metal was getting old and indie was all Radiohead/Jeff Buckley sound alikes. A frantic call from a friend in New York, sent me to see one off show by them in 2001 at the Annadale Hotel. It was a blistering performance and I was amazed by all the sounds coming out of Nick Zimmer's guitar. Karen O was a front woman extraordinare and had a whole room of people who knew maybe one song if that eating up the worthy hype. So this album captures that night perfectly. The production really captures that energy and style and makes this a perfect debut. Date With Night and Maps couldn't be two more different songs and that extreme is one of the things that still has me loving this album nearly 20 years on
Riding on the early wave of New York indie bands with their contemparies the Strokes, Interpol and the Walkmen, the YYYs and this album provide a positive nostalgia kick. The album opens with a bolt of energy, dips slightly in the middle before hitting hard with two indie disco classics (Maps & Y Control).
How many YYY albums are on this list anyway? This one is a burner but ends flat. Karen O's vocals are sexy and scary.
I mean, it rocks, and it's tuneful. But it feels rather Pitchfork-y, and maybe not something that will resonate in 20 years. I might listen to again to see if I'm wrong.
Whoever said this group was “Led Zeppelin with estrogen” (e.g. John Pareles, Nick Kent) was way off. Karen O has nowhere near the range or blues sensitivity of Robert Plant. Nick Zinner can’t touch Jimmy Page. Brian Chase isn’t in the same universe as John Bonham. Having no bass player (Yeah Yeah Yeahs would be a lot better if they had one) there’s no way to compare John Paul Jones. And as a group, they’re too mechanical. YYYs completely lack LZ’s dynamic vitality. So let’s just quietly set aside the Led Zeppelin comparison, intending no offense to politically correct critics desperate to promote a “female rocker” (which is almost an oxymoron, anyway). On its own merits, the album is interesting enough, worth a listen, even if just for the sake of gender diversity. But I myself have heard (indeed played) better ‘garage rock’ and ‘garage punk’ in actual garages. I give it a ‘two’.
Lead singers voice felt too try-hard and put me off a lot of the songs. Sounded like a continous soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim. Best track: Y Control
Looking at the album cover, I'm gonna establish a baseline of 2/5 and go from there lol. aaaand it's noisy indie alternative stuff. At least the music matches the manic album art... I guess? Lots of processed vocal theatrics, and everything is buried in the mix underneath the singing and drums. It's like they heard the White Stripes and decided they could do the same, but ignored the good songwriting and instead dialled the oddest, most manic bits up to 11. So the end result is all the annoying loud tendencies of indie rock and nothing else. It has a really bratty lyrical cynicism to it that just seems fucking childish, too. "ha ha here's an angry lyric but it's done with a cutesy girly squeal!" uuugh spare me the beautiful disaster/harley quinn routine, loser. The 2/5 stays.
IM SO HAPPY THAT THIS IS HERE THERE ARE TEARS IN MY EYES RN HUHUHUHU i am sort of validated that i have good taste in music hahhahaha
Ya conocía este álbum desde hace años (de hecho algunas canciones las tengo entre mis favoritas), y me sorprendió mucho encontrarlo aquí, porque así tuve la oportunidad de escuchar el disco completo de nuevo. Desde el punto de vista musical, me gusta el tema "estridente", como metálico, que le dan a los instrumentos y la voz. Es un sonido "casi" saturado, pero que no es para nada cansado. Otra cosa que me gusta del disco es la combinación de canciones tan frenéticas y alocadas como Date with the Night o Tick, pero también temas serios y tristes como Maps o Poor Song, sin embargo esto no hace que las canciones sean menos energéticas. No sé por qué no había escuchado este disco completo de nuevo desde hace tanto.
Fantastic album, love it. Fave three track sequence = "Maps" -> "Y Control" -> "Modern Romance".... so good!
Incredible from start to finish. The pace is incredible and it just doesn’t let up.
Amazing! Not as big of a fan of their later electro work but this album is right in my wheelhouse
Great and successful debut album of the successful band! So energetic!
Una obra de arte. Canciones cortas en su mayoría, pero que no les falta nada. Simplemente te llena de energía
A friend of mine years ago made me a mix tape, and on it was the song “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I loved that song, but never further investigated the group behind it. I’m glad to have the opportunity to rectify that now. FEVER TO TELL is a gritty, passionate carnival of song lead by an incredible snarling, cooing, moaning, screaming vocal performance by Karen O supported mostly by grinding guitars and pounding drums. The opening number “Rich” was exhilarating to me as the album opened, then “Date With The Night” amps things up a few notches with some incredible vocals shouting ‘CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE.’ Then in a 1-2-3 punch Karen O takes it up another notch in “Man.” WOW what a song. She punctuates the song with this sort of falsetto that is incredible. “Tick” follows and seems to just rocket the album forward. The energy is incredible as she ‘tick tick tick tick ticks’ and ‘loo-oo-oo-oo-ooses’ her way through the song. The ‘tick tick ticks’ at the end are incredible. Karen O is constantly surprising to me - witness “Black Tongue’s” ‘uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh-ooooh!’ The lyrics are a lot of fun too, ‘boy you’re just a stupid bitch and girl, you just a no good dick.’ More fun ensues in “Pin” with the crazy ‘bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, dunno, dunno, dunno, dunno’ lyrics. “Cold Light” has such a great opening. A slower song still with all the energy. “No No No” has a great slow-fast thing going on. By the time I get to “Maps” it was so exciting to hear those opening drums again. Funny in the context of the album it is one of the quieter songs thus far. It almost feels like Karen O is holding back on this one. “Y Control” continues along that energy level, then we get “Modern Romance,” a softer almost intimate song, followed by “Poor Song,” a really quiet, almost dirge-like ending to the album that brings the whole thing to a quiet, sudden stop. This was a lot of fun to listen to. I also love looking at the album cover. Absolutely loved it!
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah! I'd already been listening to some Karen O. recently. This is great. A lot rawer, but I like my music raw.
So of all the albums/genres i'm discovering and loving for the first time, i've realised most are punk-rock. Raw, dance-indie - this is now downloaded as an instant pick me up on the bleakest of days.
Un álbum que me sigue emocionando todavía. No sé cuántas veces lo repetí cuando era adolescente. Muy top de inicio a fin. 10/10
Este álbum para mí ejemplifica a la perfección que todo tiempo pasado fue mejor :,)
Wow, this is awesome! I was not expecting that from the cover. There's just so much energy, the screechy guitars, the crazy yelling vocals and lyrics. Favorite tracks are: "Pin", "Date With The Night", "Y Control". Very strong 4/5, maybe even a 5/5.. depends how I'm feeling tomorrow morning.
This album was part of the garage rock revival movement in the late 90s and early 2000s. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs combine fuzzy rock elements with art punk to form an exciting driving music that features the extraordinary vocals of Karen O. A lot of the elements here can be heard in later indie rock music yet it still sounds fresh to me despite being over 20 years old.
An alt classic Stand out tracks - black tounge - maps - Y control - Date with the night
I mean, it's just f-ing cool isn't it. Twenty years old, who would have thought!
At the time I thought Fever to Tell was an astonishingly good debut both in terms of the music but also the style of the band. I enjoyed the following 2 albums, but then hadn't thought of them since. Revisiting their debut many years later and it hasn't lost any of its urgency and cool. Love it.
Nice changes of pace in these tracks but they always maintain the post punk energy. Siouxsie and the Banshees meets The Pretenders. Simultaneously sophisticated and uncomplicated.
Never heard of the band before but I love it. Exactly the kind of music I love. Will be checking out the rest of the discography.
It's loud, high-energy, punk flavored rock that set the stage for all the female fronted rock bands I love today.
One already favorite song on here, and a few I hadn't heard. Good stuff!
I love how raw and unpolished this recording sounds. Everything is kind of overly dynamic and noisy, but it fits the style of the music perfectly and sounds like you're listening to them live. S'good
This album is what I imagine the soundtrack to an awesome indie coming of age drama has. It has some loud and upbeat songs in the beginning, but ends with beautiful and almost melancholy tones. Maps really shifts the feel of the album if you're listening to it in order. I'm normally into acoustic and slower songs but I was surprised how genuinely I liked this album.
First listen. So good! I’ve listen to them a lot but never this album.
I have a lot to say about Maps although this album as a whole is absolutely essential. Maps is the best song of the 2000s. Represents so much about the time with garage rock revival. The amount of power it outputs is incredible. All done by drums and guitar which (with all due respect) are not using too many notes and vocals which are sparse. The economy and precision are unmatched. The music video is an essential part of this equation too. Bringing in my own baggage and knowing the story of the filming of the video and the emotional place Karen O was in, I have never been able to hold it together once she starts tearing up. Just incredible myth making stuff. This is what we come to music for. Speaking of the video, it warms my heart to see so many of the YouTube comments talking about playing this song in Rock Band. Maps is really the essential song to the Rock Band experience. It’s simple enough that anyone can play along with it. Anyone who does though is just going to wail away on the instruments or vocals and unload all their angst and heartbreak into hitting those 5 notes. Stroke of genius putting it into the first game. Maps. They don’t love you like I love you
Really surprised by this one. I had heard the singles all these years but never listened to the album. It’s a banger and count me as a new fan. Fantastic!
I'm obsessed. I don't think I've really solidified my opinion on individual songs yet because right now I've just been taking in the entire album as one uninterrupted vibe, but Rich and Modern Romance and Poor Song and especially Maps are all just amazing. I love how gravelly and rich the guitar tone is, it's utterly perfect. This album bounces nonstop between sadness and anger and all-out fun. Plenty of repetition and yet I'm never bored. A keeper.
When I looked up the info on this album as I was rocking out to it, I noticed that it had a similar setup to the White Stripes. I am talking about the guitar driven rock aspect with just one guitar and drums and no bass (and here a separate vocalist in Karen O). They don’t sound anything like them though. This album has a great hard rocking edge. I love the guitar-driven edge that is has on most of the tracks and was tempted to listen to some tracks over again right after I finished them (“Black Tongue” especially). The musicianship on here is quite good and there were parts on the whole album where one of them stood out and made me think “Man, what a great drum part” or “I love what she did with her voice there.” I’m not a huge fan of garage rock but this doesn’t sound like typical garage rock to be. This album really hit home hard and I’m looking forward to checking out more of their stuff.
I really like the guitar work here and the lead vocals started to grow on me. Pretty fun album.
Ah man I love this! I don't know why I haven't spent more time getting into the Yeah Yeah Yeahs because I love all their music when I do listen to it. This is one band who I have delved into their stuff as a result of doing this so cheers 1001 for that! Can't believe this is a debut album it's such a corker. As in my review of It's Blitz! I love that they have the indie punk sound without all the bits of punk that I hate like stressful screetchy noises. Particularly loved Tick and Pin.
What an album. Reminds me of being young! Raw energy and screaming from Karen O. Maps all time fave!
Karen O's voice reminds me of PJ Harvey with a little of Courtney Love's raspy twang and some of Katie Steele's sexy tones. She takes it all to the next level. While I find some of her vocal affectations a bit much, the basis of their music is crunchy guitar riffs and drums that don't take prisoners. The whole package rocks. What more can you want? Maps and Y Control are tonally different from the rest of the album and push it up to 5 star status. Both songs really grabbed me, so the contrast with some of their extremes just makes this album a great package.
Never listened to this Yeah Yeah Yeahs album before. I've only heard their later music and enjoyed it so. This album is much 'harder' than I expected. Pleasantly surprised, as I had no idea their roots were in this post-punk, neo-grunge, alt-rock vibe. Love this. Saved tracks: Rich, Date With The Night, Maps, Y Control
This was a huge album for me in high school. It was great to re-listen as a part of this project, and the album holds up completely. The raw aggressive sound is still unique among rock albums, the guitar sounds are fascinating and Karen O's vocals are captivating. Maps is still a certified banger.
What a fucking debut. sick riffs with karen's beautiful voice. made me interested to dive into their discography.
Get you a girl like Karen O, who can do "Tick" and "Maps" on the same album.
I enjoyed this as well. I really like the bluesy aspect of their music.
I always kinda liked Maps from the radio. First heard the whole album when I had a roommate with it and it grew on me. Still takes me back to those days.
I liked this one a lot more than I expected to at first. It's sort of grunge/garage rock style and the lead vocalist is a woman. The album itself is somewhat short (36 ish minutes) and not at all a bad listen.
Every track sounds like it could have been in a Sony Bravio advert. Not familiar with the band, they remind me a bit of The Pretty Reckless.
mostly mellow rock from the earlier 2000's.. That one song "Maps" I am pretty sure I have heard before.. if I had to guess.. rockband or guitar hero haha
De todos los que hemos oído hasta ahora, estos son los únicos que he visto en vivo, recuerdo que me aburrieron, pero el disco por sí mismo me gustó mucho. Me imaginaba que iba a ser un tanto repetitivo, porque eso recuerdo del concierto, pero la verdad es que tiene al menos tres muy buenas rolas ('Maps', 'Date With The Night' y 'Y Control') y el resto no es malo. Creo que se distingue de la avalancha de grupos de su época por la voz de mujer y eso les aseguró unos años más de éxito.
Heard them in rock band back in the day had no idea they were so gritty!