Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down

One of the leading lights to come from the NYC aughts ‘return of rock’ was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but they’ve forged their own path. They’ve managed to both lean into their art-rock airs and into their indie-dance moves. They’ve also disappeared for long stretches, their last record in the long, long-ago 2013, Mosquito (QRO review). Well, Karen O, Brian Chase, and Nick Zimmer finally return with Cool It Down, that has the YYY quality you’ve been waiting for, if not the quantity.

For Down only runs eight songs, just over thirty minutes, and that includes the spoken word tones of the closing “Mars”. For such a long time away, one could have hoped for more, but what is there, is great, starting with the slow, epic YYYs of opening single “Spitting Off the Edge of the World”. There’s also the killer YYY sad dance of “Wolf”, and the band’s slow burn explosion in “Burning”.

Even if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have never released as much music you would wish, a major reason is because what they do put out is so great, keeping that aughts rock spirit while developing their artistic ways. Leave ‘em wanting more…