1001 Albums Summary

That's an incredible photo! Props to the photographer on this one. I find myself wondering if it symbolizes any themes on the album. So, my only experience with Yeah Yeah Yeahs up to this point is "Maps" -- it's one of the first songs I learned to play on real drums, after mastering it on the hardest difficulty on Rock Band. So here we go... "Zero" instantly gives me a Pretenders vibe. Never realized "Heads Will Roll" was this band! "Soft Shock" passed my by and I barely realized it was happening. "Skeletons" is a beautiful but bitterly sad song. Really cool production choices here, like the drumsticks clacking together during the outro buildup. But speaking of buildup, I was waiting for it to explode with a bit more emotion and it never happened. Does the release come with track 5? Ok! "Dull Life" feels like a return to the energetic new wave dance punk vibes the first two songs alluded to. Killer guitar riff on this one and some standout vocals. "Shame and Fortune" finally brings the driving drums I've been craving, but I find the repetitive bass/synth line robs the song of something it needs. Can't put my finger on it, but it just needed a little more... complexity or variety. "Runaway" is a beautiful song. The buildup that starts at about 2:00 in, though, prepared me for an explosion that didn't QUITE deliver. That seems like a theme running through this album, for me. I'm often wanting twice the energy, twice the momentum, a more cathartic emotional payoff and it never seems to come. My subjective expectations not being met aren't the band's fault though. "Dragon Queen" is fine. Really playful vocal from Karen O! I found myself tuning out "Hysteric" until the outro. Maybe that deserves another listen? "Little Shadow" is an appropriate closer, and I find myself grateful I wasn't paying very close attention to the lyrics. Thematically, this is a dark album that exposes open wounds and loneliness and various forms of heartbreak. It takes a certain emotional constitution for me to wade through albums like this. But, overall, there's just something missing from the production. The punch and the energy that seems to be deliberately held back. I'll have to ponder the rating...

After the first two tracks, I was ready to write this album off (I've never intentionally listened to War) but "City, Country, City" captured my attention with its funky saxophone / organ leads and energetic, dense percussion. FUN listen that had me dancing around. This might be a 70's track from Santana if you swapped the sax with guitar... And right after that, "Four Cornered Room" has me bored and tuned out again. War simply isn't for me, and that's fine. But I did add "City, Country, City" to an instrumental playlist I have to get fired up, so it's not a total loss.