Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Mosquito

<i>it's not BAD bad (apart from that one rap track), it just sounds like a bunch of demos. you go "oh" and you move on

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Friday, April 5, 2013 8:26 AM</i>

<i>this profile is really good and has sooooo many quotes that nail why i think this record is a mess

http://www.spin.com/articles/yeah-yeah-yeahs-mosquito-karen-o-cover-story-march-2013

― J0rdan S., Friday, April 5, 2013 9:40 PM</i>

From that youtube album preview, this sounds like it will be the most disappointing album of 2013, showing the YYYs as a band who had some really great energy and raw ideas with their initial independent material but handed that energy over to image consultants or something and fell into a non-confidence about their initial sound that resulted in some kind of confusion about who they really want to be. ('we never had an ideology,' via Spin, etc.) Jordan otm about that article exposing exactly why this album sucks, and why anything subsequently from them will suck. The entire article has these undertones that express How We Effectively Ruined Nick Zinner. I mean from the way the interview was presented it sounds like the collaborator basically backed Zinner into a corner to in order to get permission to chuck pedal, what the heck? He's the only one I might want to hear a solo record by, yet, apparently the band saved him from that. And I might be totally off the mark, but from his silent artisticness it sounds like he might be kind of an insecure/introverte guy, however talented, apt to be influenced by more annoying, louder voices (band manager, MS O?)

And what lex said--a hearty handful of the songs on Mosquito sound like first drafts drenched in echo to protect that they're these absolutely unrealized ideas. Like just because Chase can drum to sound a subway train doesn't mean that should be the entire backbone of the song, because it's not minutes-long cool. Maybe if they would have let Zinner keep his pedal...

Anyway "Sacrilege" is a great, well-produced pop track, and the choir definitely works well for in context it as a clean, studio song, but it's nothing that gets back to the roots like they tried to purport in the Spin piece. And that annoying intro on the title track doesn't count or match anything like on Fever To Tell. This is like one of those albums that makes you want to go through the band's back catalog again to temper the magic you felt about them in the first place. Like, 'no, this isn't cool or sexy or exciting, this is actually just really annoying because they're annoying people.'

*oops on formatting

I'm no YYYs aficionado but this album sounds fine to me. Except the second track was really boring. Maybe it would have sounded fine elsewhere on the album, but not as the second track.

I dug a couple of the songs on the playback, but the best comment on this came from my gf: "I liked them better when they didn't have any money"

sooooo many quotes that nail why i think this record is a mess

karen o being a kanye hater until my big stupid fantasy turned her around ://////

also i think show your bones is only their third best album but i am not here for them disowning it like that

"way out" and "turn into" alone >>>>>>>> anything on mosquito

Yeah those are the two highlights along with Cheated Hearts which is my favourite song of theirs these days. Which album is your favourite overall?

Its Blitz is their best composition-wise imho but i hate the production on it. Sounds innapropriate for them.

Which album is your favourite overall?

― Kitchen Person, Sunday, April 7, 2013 8:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's blitz >> fever to tell >>> show your bones = yeah yeah yeahs ep >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> mosquito

my fav YYYs tracks are pretty evenly spread though, i guess a POX would be

bang
heads will roll
date with the night
dull life
turn into
dragon queen
way out
runaway
man
our time

Until this record they got better with each release imo.

"turn into" is so sublime

yeah show your bones in general is really underrated

isn't "Phenomenon" used in a car commercial or something?

Until this record they got better with each release imo.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Yeah this is how I feel. Mosquito is right down at the bottom now.

4th song and this doesn't sound like a tragedy, you catastrophists!

Second listen and "Slave" is alright. Still feels like sketches in echo. "Area 52" is no "Art Star" like O compares in the youtube preview, definitely belongs more on the Garbage Pail Kids soundtrack.

So yeah, finally gave this a listen and I can see what people mean when they say it sounds like a bunch of demos... I definitely don't think it sounds as good as It's Blitz! does, and there's one or two songs here that seem to meander a little without doing much of anything on first listen. I'll certainly be giving it a few more listens before I decide whether I feel this is any good or not, but I don't think it's going to mean as much to me as their previous album did no matter how much or little it grows on me.

listening to official version

it really does sound like it was recorded in a drainpipe :(

Halfway through and I'm liking this so far. I'm not sure I really want to hear a whole album of this murky echo chamber stuff, but it's an interesting direction for them.

from the cover to the dr octagon guest spot, this album is extremely... 90s

It's so unbelievably late 90s it sounds like the band were wearing combat trousers when they recorded it.

'Area 51' is pretty great actually.

it's blitz was already hella 90s

Meh, I've given this album another go this morning and I just really couldn't be bothered with it. Found myself wanting to turn it off and listen to 'Dragon Queen' instead.

huh i wasn't expecting a peaking lights record

this isn't that bad but the cover is so disgusting i will never buy a physical copy

isn't "Phenomenon" used in a car commercial or something?

Cadillac baby!

I am bummed everyone is hating on this, now I don't even want to hear it. Granted the cover was off-putting enough, and I didn't really like Sacrilege so... hopes dashed I guess

it's not bad so far, just kind of a snooze. "slave" is good.

Yeah I am bummed too. I just got it this morning. Stop hating people! You're ruining it for me and I haven't even listened to it yet. :(

although if you're used to dull lo-fi white people dub then you might find something to salvage

I don't think it's terrible by any means. Just, perhaps, a little scatterbrained.

I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to like it nearly as much as their other stuff but it still makes me very very sad. They better not just play this next month. I mean I'm sure they won't but yeah.

a lot of this stuff could probably be complicated and rescued live

How many albums was their Interscope contract signed for? Maybe they're just looking for an easy exit.

'Sacrilege' is quite possibly the best thing on here!

god Always is amazing!

Reviews of this album have actually been fairly kind (77 on Metacritic, somehow), but I feel like critics are just giving it the benefit of the doubt.

i dunno folks, this is sounding pretty neat to me

skipped to the last three tracks everyone is talking about so basically this album is amazing to me so far!

"slave" and "despair" are my cuts off of this. definitely disappointing after it's blitz :(

the rap song is just...sigh

A positive review: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/04/yeah-yeah-yeahs-mosquito.html

how come nobody's said, with mosquitoes the yeah yeah yeahs have lost their BITE

this mosquito truly sucks

don't scratch this itch, for mosquito

it don't draw blood

About to see them in Ventura. A surprisingly young crowd here tonight.

Hoped they had its blitz on vinyl, but it's all mosquito here tonight. Worth $17? The enthusiasm for this record seems low itt.

This cover is awful. Would prbly buy if the cover was not incredibles baby in grasp of mosquito.

listening to this for the first time just now, so far it's pretty bad-ass (1.5 songs in)

i agree sufjan. the cover is so bad it is honestly hard to not have it unfavorably influence my experience of the album, which i actually like a lot, especially "sacrilege."