YEAH YEAH YEAHS

Cooler than thou, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs gleefully accepted the Strokes' poisoned chalice of being New York's most hyped band. Like the Strokes it is not hard to see why. Fronted by the ultra-stylish Karen O and backed by two weird-looking hipsters the band affect the most ridiculously style-over-substance approach and, indeed, draw most inspiration from their similarly inclined New York fore-fathers - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (not least in the fact neither use a bassist). Be me sexist or otherwise I've never been much of a fan of female vocalists but Karen O's supremely stylised lasciviousness is enough to keep me hooked and, in a way, she seems a far more suitable partner to Jon Spencer than his own wife, the bland Cristina Martinez (particularly on the post-modern blues "Man"). Despite the obvious concerns that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are all style over substance, which is certainly what you'd think on description alone, it is refreshing to discover that their debut full-length (they released a couple of EPs previously) is deceptively strong. The first seven tracks are all enjoyably stylish garage rock romps but, just when one might be tiring off such exploits, they turn the album on its head by ending with a quartet of serious, emotionally sombre tunes that more accurately display their strength in songwriting, stripped of the blurring self-conscious coolness. In truth, the serious songs are not as interesting or as impressive as the first half but at least the change in atmosphere indicates they actually put some thought into the composition of the album as a whole. The sincere "Maps" (with the emotional plea of a chorus "they don't love you like I love you") is the only real highlight of the second half, although the droning "Modern Romance" ain't half bad either. It is interesting that Karen should be making such an emotionally sincere statement as for the best part of the album she is panting out lustful demands and bragging about her sexual prowess. As it happens I guess one of the reasons I do like her as a vocalist is because her orgasmic grunts, moans and squeals come across as far more genuinely horny than the mechanical panting of, say, Britney Spears (not that I wouldn't do Britney Spears, you understand.) The culmination of O's eroticism comes with the last song of the stylish garage rock part - the writhing "Cold Light" with the unambiguous Prince-like ultimatum "be my lover and we can do it with each other, like a sister and a brother". The only real problem with the flow of the album, particularly from style to sincerity, comes with the anchor track "No No No". It is hardly a classic composition in any sense but the extended coda, essentially an ambient dub-like instrumental, stands out as the only really boring moment on the album. The two lads in the band do branch out beyond the limited drums and guitar combo more often than not with many a synthesiser and/or keyboard embellishing the arrangements. The greatest beneficiary in fact being the opening track "Rich" which relies heavily on an exploratory synthesiser line. The guitarist, Neil Zinner, is no slouch, however, and often breaks out beyond basic power chords with many interesting guitar lines complementing Karen's energetic performances. The stand out tracks on the first half, other than "Rich", are the aggressive "Black Tongue" and the excellent sign-of-the-times garage rocker "Date with the Night". Although the first half is very, very stylised the real key to its success is that only rarely is it style at the expense of substance. As it happens, the more emotionally straight second half is the weaker of the two but I still heartily applaud the band for refusing to pigeon-hole themselves and, furthermore, recognising the main weaknesses of Jon Spencer's similarly stylised releases. Ultimately the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are no Strokes but there is little doubting those who might dismiss this album as typical style-over-substance really should hear it first.

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk