Written during the Fever to Tell tour, the five songs on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new EP aren’t all new, some performed at live shows and captured on the 2004 DVD, Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow. The compellingly taut, swaggering eighteen minutes is a happy mix of rawness and accessibility, leaning much more towards the sexy drive, grit and growl of their knockout debut, Fever to Tell, but reaching into the future with some of the sweeter melody and quiet of the slicker, more measured (but less effective) Show Your Bones.
The commanding “Rockers to Swallow” leads off the EP with a visceral, almost relentless drive. Zinner alternately thrashes on one note and squalls through, while Chase and Karen O’s “Hey!”s keeps it spare — it’s almost as if they were a jazz combo taking turns here, alternately coming together and dropping out to let the remainder flaunt some attitude. More than usual here, Karen O’s wails and syllables turn her voice into the third instrument rocking out, which just happens to form words at some points.
There’s contrast in “Down Boy” as well, with the verses subdued and backed by a constant note from an organ tone. The chorus is where the ride is, Karen matter of factly intoning “Down, count me down boy” with Zinner tying it up with a fierce reprimand of a riff. “Kiss Kiss” is insistently catchy, with the sharp rhythm of the vocals playing off the straight gallop of drums and guitar, cutting off at the end for Karen O to whisper-sing “We're three, we're three in the dark tonight and baby my snake is a shark tonight.” Mrowr! The title track goes a little creepy, with downward crawling guitar, menacing imagery and frenzied repetition of “wild night!” And finally, “10x10” is a stomping piece with a bit more of a narrative, esoteric as it is. It’s a change of pace from the strut and wail that precedes it, with a more introspective Karen O muttering, “Did I really drown?”
The three members get to showcase their best qualities here. We get the band’s impressive span from imperious strut to provocative suggestion to uneasy vulnerability and the easy way the three have in arranging themselves. With fuzzier lyrics than what is perhaps usual and the signature scuzzy sound, the Is Is EP has brought together both a focus and a range that hopefully will be found in the group’s next release.
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