I’m starting the long process of packing up my room and I ran across an ode to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs I wrote about a year ago, on some flight. Sorry for the thirteen-year-old-girl-writing-about-her-dreamy-hunk-idol writing (although that’s really quite close to how I felt at the time, and though my love for the YYYs has matured since then, it has not dimmed).
Unlike Interpol’s slow and steady rise on the Neeraj top 50, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (YYYs) exploded on my scene at #1 and have remained close ever since. My sister told me about this video she’d seen that was kinda cool, kinda weird, and told me I might like it. It was called “Maps” by the YYYs (or maybe “YYYs” by the Maps, she wasn’t sure). So I checked it out, and she was right: I liked it. I liked it a lot. So much, in fact, that for the next few days, I listened to only that one song, on repeat, over and over and over again. I quickly got the whole album and was very impressed (not to mention, very addicted).
The main singer, Karen O, known apparently for her flamboyant dresses and excitement on stage, said in an interview that she was tired of going to all these indie band concerts and just being bored by their “intelligent” music, their “clever” lyrics, and their “unique” (just like everyone else) lack of energy. And so she wanted to make music that was anything but, and she has succeeded marvellously. Whether through her shouting, screaming, shrieking, squealing, or just a sheer sexuality bordering on desperate horniness, there is never a dull moment (Not that Brian Chase’s jungle drumming on many songs and Nick Zinner’s shrill guitars would ever allow such a thing anyway).
It’s rare when the first song released from an album is not only the most accessible, but all the longest-lasting, the band’s own favorite, and the best overall song. “Maps,” however, is such a song, achieving sublime perfection despite its non sequitur of a a chorus (”Maps. They don’t love you like I love you.” What?) Regardless, I doubt any band could convey more emotion in a song were it being threatened with a gun to its collective head (or worse, a spot on where are they now?). In fact, one of the reasons the song works so well is because the emotion seems to be coming from a reservoir where it has been stored for a long time, building over a relationship’s tumultuous course rather than from a swig of JD and a self-convincing “fuck-it” before running on stage. This is also depicted so perfectly in the video for the song, which is simultaneously one of the most enigmatic videos ever made (strangely reminding me of Radiohead’s “Just” video), but also one that captures the exact feeling of the song (i.e. it’s hard to understand what’s going on in the video, yet it just seems so perfect).
And so with a scant 10 songs, a total of just 40 minutes of music, I’m sold. Here’s to hoping that the next 10 will only reinforce the YYYs’ standing on my top 50.
Tags: yeah yeah yeahs
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