great albums numero quatro
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell (2003)The first time I remember the Yeah Yeah Yeahs having a real impact on me was late at night on Thursday, April 1, 2004.
I was thirty miles outside of Bloomington, Indiana, en route to Indiana University for a college visit. I was all but certain it was my college of choice for the following fall - but with my parents wisdom - bless them, recommended we check it out first.
Anyways, as a was sprawled out in the back of my dad's car, gripping my discman tightly, I remember looking rather wistfully at the stars. There was something particularly prepossessing about them that evening. They just looked so.. right. I don't really know how to put this in words, but there was something ultimately calming about them sitting in place in the sky, bordered by what seemed like an endless row of trees.
In my discman was copy of Fever To Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It's a particularly odd album to listen to late at night when you're staring up into the sky - full of furious punk blasts and unmistakable grooves - and Karen O's 'Patti Smith on speed' vocals. What really made this album stand out for me is the sheer sonic grandeur of Nick Zinner's guitar.
I didn't expect it at all. It was huge, tight and incredibly emotional all at the same time. From what I'd read in rock rags - It just seemed like they were some cheapo '77 punk knockoff and the singer liked to dress like a four year old.
Was I wrong.
Fever To Tell is a watershed in modern rock history. I sincerely believe any band will ever come close to duplicating it. It may never be cited on a "best of all time" list, but instead find a comfortable place under the radar as one of those albums you "may-have-missed-if-you-weren't-there". It's one twenty five years down the road that we can tell our children to check out.
Why?
It's representative of the era we live in.
Fast, immediate, messy, confusing, strange and ultimately confounding.
Listen to "Tick" for Karen O's opressive yelp or "Date With The Night" to experience an furious, irresistable romp.
Every time I think of the band - I'm brought back to that Indiana night where I heard "Maps" segue so gracefully into "Y Control" and then fade into the gorgeousness of "Modern Romance".
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs made a very important statement with their first record that doesn't necessarily apply to just music.
There really is beauty in cacaphony.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Man (1.54 MB, m4a)
