The best part about "It's Blitz!" is that it was completely unnecessary to change the sound of previous works from the YYY's. From the last two albums/EP's they put out, 2006's "Show Your Bones", and 2007's "Is Is", The YYY's proved that they have one of the most talented guitar/drums duo in music today in Nick Zinner and Brian Chase. These two have provided some of the most enjoyable guitar riffs and experimental drum breakdowns of this decade.
But that's not what "It's Blitz" is about. If not anything, this is the first album that proves the synthesizer just might be as awesome as most alternative rock bands wants us to believe it is. Last year, synthesizer was all over the place, most noticeably MGMT. On "It's Blitz", we get a taste of the frenetic side of the synthesizer with the 80's song on acid single, "Zero", and then it is used to perfection to slow down the tempo and pace with the absolutely sweet sounding "Skeletons". "It's Blitz" might also go down as the CD that proves Karen-O as the most entertaining frontman/frontwoman of the decade, at one moment she's vulnerable, the next she's a fucking 100 year old queen in "Dull Life" and is completely in control of the song. (Note: listen to this album on speakers that are worth a damn, you'll appreciate it later.)
Breakdown:
- Zero - Takes a while to get it's feet going, but when the bridge kicks in and Karen-O starts yelping "Shell-shock!", it's hard to not want to just jump from your seat and do a little moshpit dance
- Heads Will Roll - Very aggressive disco song, awesome jungle beat at the end of the song.
- Soft Shock - Might be the breakout song from the album. The guitar effects in the chorus seems to reflect Karen's voice perfectly and just makes this song melt into your mind.
- Skeletons - It takes balls to put a song like this on an alternative rock cd. Karen is as vulnerable as ever, and the drum stick clacking sounds like an outtake from an Animal Collective song. This leads to the song to just continue to build up rhythmically, mixing electronic drum noises with real drums, it's pretty interesting.
- Dull Life - I'm thinking that Nick Zinner had multiple ideas for some mean guitar licks on his next cd, and then Karen and Brian just ruined it by telling Nick that the next CD was going to be all synthesizer. Nick must have cried at that meeting, and feeling sorry for him, they let Nick put all of his ideas into one song, and that song would be called "Dull Life". ..... That's how I imagine how this song was made at-least.
- Shame and Fortune - If there was one throwaway song on this CD, it would be this one, unfortunately it kinda drags on and doesn't go anywhere.
- Runaway - Since when did the YYY's have an orchestra backing them up? Takes a while to build up, but it rewards you for sticking around by the end of the song.
- Dragon Queen - This song is just awesome. It has backing vocals from the dude on TV on The Radio, and that's exactly what this song sounds like, which is TV On The Radio + The YYY's.
- Hysteric - The obvious top single on the album. Karen's voice is just amazingly sweet in this.
- Little Shadow - This song is just special to me for some reason. It's such a children's song, the organ mixed with drums sounds absolutely amazing, Karen's voice is perfect, Thank You YYY's.
Must have tracks:
The entire CD. Buy the deluxe version on iTunes for some acoustic versions (Hysteric is especially great acoustic)
Final Verdict:
Approved.
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