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8.5

Last week, not only did I not elaborate enough on how bone-crushingly amazing the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs record is, but I gave it a rating of 8 out of 10 which I would now like to formally change to 8.5 out of 10. Not only is It’s Blitz the type of album that is clearly phenomenal at first listen, but I’ve found that each time the pounding toms and ambient synths of “Little Shadow” fade out into silence…I love the record even more. It’s not to say that Blitz is a “grower” in the music review sense, but there’s something about these hollowed, echoed alternative anthems that becomes more powerful with each listen.

There are a few reasons for this. For one, Karen O is a f*cking tornado. She touches down to the ground and destroys everything in her f*cking path. The other elements of the song get sucked into the whirlwind rather than determine her direction. These songs would, undoubtedly, be less memorable if sung by any other vocalist, though, instrumentally – on this album more than any other, these songs stand very firmly on their own.

The musical landscapes that have been made possible by this band simply putting a sequencer in their studio is completely astounding. Considering what they’ve accomplished in the past with just a couple of guitar parts and drums makes this totally understandable. Yet, I find myself blown away by the beauty of these keyboard driven breakdowns and oceans of distorted sounds.

Along with all of this, there were two pressing observations that were missing from my previous write-up; the first being that It’s Blitz is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at their unequivocal best. The second: that this is likely Album of the Year.