Please disregard the text of this review. My views on music have changed in recent months. Granted, this is still a pretty good record.

Perhaps I've just been getting too excited about bands lately- the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have seriously blown me away. Once I read a very positive review from MattA75, a man I generally trust (with the exception of his opinion of the Hives), I knew there had to be something good about them. So yesterday, I walked into a Border's Books and Music store in Cleveland, where you can listen to this stuff for free, and I bought the CD right away. And I blasted that music in the store (my friend said he could hear it clear across the room, and the room is pretty big), and in the car. Their debut album, Fever to Tell, is just full of beautiful, beautiful music, from the first note to the last.

Take that first track, for example, which is definitely one of my favorites. It starts out with this beautiful guitar pedal sound, going high and low, and oh lord, I just overwhelmed right by that chord progression. But then, listening, I said "Wait, if this is going to be perfect, they have to put in drums right now- oh yes, that's perfect... now they need the vocals... YES, YES, YES!!!!!!" I was having a musical orgasm greater than those Herbal Essences women. I had the biggest smile across my face all throughout the song- it was just good, good stuff. Every time I hear that song (it's called Rich, by the way), I just sit back and admire the beautiful chord progression.

Following it is another favorite, Date With the Night, which just rocks the world to death. Not only is it fierce and unrelenting like so few garage rock, it also has a great sense of humor- when the guitarist hits seemingly random chords on the bridge, and the vocalist (Karen O) just screams, I laugh my @$$ off every time, because it is really, really funny, and it knows it's ridiculous, while still managing to rock the hell out of you.

After those two, the record heads into it's really shorter songs, such as Man, which contains a much faster Shania Twain swing to it for a time, but then just rocks like the YYYs do. My lord, the drums this band has are just tight out the wizzang- it's not quite on a Mars Volta level, but my, is it good- he does things you'd never notice if the drums weren't strictly what you listened to. It EXPLODES with skill- as does the very beaty Tick, which is simply all about the rhythm. The band "Jet" can produce stuff like this and just makes it soudn deriviative and ultimately boring, but the Y's rock it to ground. It's beautiful, throwing the listeners against the wall and not letting them come down.

Black Tongue is a song that lives up to it's name, being quite nasty, containing lyrics such as the often mentioned Boy, you're just a stupid b*tch, and girl, you're just a no-good d*ck. The song really exploits Karen O's vocals for what they are- very, very sexy and insulting, and people like my dad might hate the band for what is at times such an unrelenting voice, but you have to see its brilliance, and find that she really is a good vocalist in the slower songs. Pin, its follower, contains what is really a very sad chord progression at its core (while maintaining absolute brilliance), but it ends up being a much more upbeat sad song, O's vocals going along so well with the sad music. The lyrics, though really hard to gather (in meaning), are just really sad, but the listener feels the song as it plays.

After that, the record slows down for a large part, but keeps the good music chucking. Cold Light, which seems to have to some strange incestuous suggestions, just keeps going very well with the chord progressions, and some sweet pedal rocking later in the song, which exhibits some more of the band's magnificence- what they play, it really is overwhelming. No No No, just for it's bass line, is just a really sweet song, the listener again not knowing what it's about, but it rocks all the same.

The album's much more serious tone comes at Maps, the single, which really is a sad, sad song. I'm not so sure whether or not I'm happy this is the single- it's good for old men to first here, but the youth want a real rocker if they're going to buy the album. And if they buy the album just after hearing that single... they really are in for quite a surprise (as this album is very loud). But anyway, "Maps", one of those last songs, is so easy to sympathize with when O sings, "Wait, they don't love you like I love you..." Oh, so true... and it so well exposes the beauty within her voice, too... such a great, great song. The same type of tone continues more with Y Control, which uses much more of the same syntheszied effect, but still rocks a lot more as it plays. It's a lot more of that lost love thing- there's such a brilliance to this album. The beginning is so full of rage, and then the album just calms down more and more into the long stage after anger- depression. And it works so well- I'm into the songs, feeling exactly what they say. Someone once said "depression is rage spread thin"... oh, so true (by the way, I'm not depressed, but I really used to be).

Modern Romance is the recovery, not counting the easy-going bonus track. It sounds so much more of a "life goes on" tone to it, and it's pretty laid-back, but slightly depressing, as our enduring protagonist sings "there is no modern romance". Interestingly enough, on the bonus track that plays a few minutes later, it appears she's found a new person to love, and she has to tell him to not be afraid of it. Both songs are pretty alike- the latter just contains a bit more of a "Sweet Home Alabama" (the movie)-ness to it. It's a wonderful easy-goer that I'm sure any classic country lover would enjoy.

This really is an amazing, amazing album, full of powerful garage rock that rises above the aggression of Weezer's version and matches it in brilliance. It's so hard to make a good angry album nowadays, but the YYY's have completely succeeded; a trio that just pounds you into the wall with their amazing sounds. Bill & Ted once said, "Be excellent to each other." The Yeah Yeah Yeah's have followed that rule.

Old Rating: A
New Rating: B-

Note: This is my 300th review, and with as much as I enjoy writing, I don't expect to see myself cancelling out anytime (I'm pretty sure I'll make it to at least 500, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's within the next six months with my current rate). I'd just like to thank all of those who have supported what I've written, and even those who have gone out of their way to tell me how much they disagree with me, for you are what keep me going.

-Tom

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening