Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

Compared to the fit of rage that was Fever To Tell, opener "Gold Lion" and "Way Out" are a slow simmer of indie production in a big studio pot. The production does give the former a cool deep delay siren effect, while the latter borrows the well-worn angular riffs of Interpol. Finally "Fancy" has the unhinged power of the band's earlier stripped-down work, though this time fighting out of the tempo of sludgy soup. "Cheated Hearts" also has some of the old power, though it seems deliberately grafted on to a tune with award-winning catchiness to show they haven't gone soft. "Dudley" has a similar feel, though it doesn't try to fortify itself with noise. It does however break down to a chiming fanfare that would make U2 proud no less than twice, a move which over-pads all of the most promising songs, and for the first time allows the band to be compared to Coldplay, never a good thing. Also the band's jarring angularity is directed to the sparse "Phenomena" and disco-tempo "Honeybear", both of which can be reduced to jingles. "Mysteries" is a short and sweet cut-time throwaway until Karen O and Zinner trade squeals in controlled mayhem at the end. Both "The Sweets" and "Warrior" are too slow to remember without really paying attention, and "Turn Into" is pleasantly catchy, but might as well be Arcade Fire. It may have been better for the band to experiment rather than produce Fever To Tell Part 2 (their words), but sometimes a necessary part of experimentation is failure.