Led by the yelping Karen O and fueled by the sharply spiking guitar riffs of Nick Zinner, Yeah Yeah Yeahs's 2001 self-titled debut EP was a like an emergency transfusion of espresso straight into the veins of the indie music buying public. It's not that the four-track 12" was even all that great, but it was filled with vitality, and that was exciting. The band's first full-length, 2003's Fever to Tell, took that excitement and married it to a stronger batch of songs. The fun was back! However, by 2006, the post-punk, garage rock, and new wave revivals were all running a little low on steam. Always presciently aware of changing trends, Yeah Yeah Yeahs shifted gears and rocked out on the mercurial Show Your Bones, an oddly successful album despite its restless moods.

Another three years has passed, and the music world feels more tired than ever. Make that, the whole world feels tired. A sonic revolution right about now would be most welcome. Barring that, a great new album will do nicely. To this morass of uncertainty, Yeah Yeah Yeahs bring us the cool and shimmering It's Blitz!. Don't let that exclamation mark fool you. The band aren't out to thrill you like it's the early aughts all over again. This new album is their most introspective to date. Elementally speaking, they are diving into water, rather than playing with fire (Fever to Tell) or stomping on earth (Show Your Bones).

On first listen, all these keyboards and heavily treated guitars seem like a terrible idea. It's Blitz! is not what a Yeah Yeah Yeahs album is supposed to sound like. This is a lazy sellout; a betrayal! Malcolm Gladwell will tell you that first impressions of people are almost always right. With music, however, some of the best records look like enemies on initial impression. That is definitely the case in this instance. This is a disc worthy of second, third, and fourth impressions. Soon enough, its merits will click.

Even a few stubbornly defensive submersions into It's Blitz! cannot keep the many pleasures of these songs from seeping into your subconscious. The post-disco synth arpeggios of lead single "Zero" are gloriously propulsive, and the build-up to a blur of densely overlapping sounds gives the cut some good grit, as does Ms. O's declaration: "You're a zero." Track two, "Heads Will Roll," is even better. Its first minute is like Giorgio Moroder stranded in the arctic. Then the grinding guitar kicks in, and you are told to "dance, dance, dance till you're dead."

The intensity drops for "Soft Shock," but the quality remains high. This song is what would happen if The Jesus and Mary Chain were produced by Brian Eno. O evokes Björk, too, with her refrigerated coos. The mood stays chilled on the open-ended "Skeletons," which is pushed along by Brian Chase's Larry Mullen-like drumming – martial, yet rolling and airy. Two songs later is the fragile heartbreaker of It's Blitz!, "Runaway." It is this album's "Maps." With stark piano and guitar-plus-synth chamber orchestrations, the instrumental backing wears its Radiohead influence proudly. Karen O balances this musical drama with plain and urgent blurts of "run, run, run" and "lost, lost, lost."

The rest of the album is far from filler. There are no bad or boring moments on It's Blitz!; only songs that run from good to great. This is one of the few records issued thus far in 2009 that is willing to forge ahead and to suggest that the forthcoming decade will be replete with great new tunes, just like all those of decades past. Ten years ago, the music scene had stagnated. It wasn't long, however, before Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and a small fleet of their peers) came along and juiced things up. Now, they are the veterans who will inspire the next batch of restless kids. It's Blitz! will be part of that inspiration.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Discography:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs [EP] (2001)
Fever to Tell (2003)
Show Your Bones (2006)
It's Blitz! (2009)

Related Records:
Radiohead: Kid A (2000)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Life Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)
Sigur Rós: Ágætis Byrjun (1999)
Björk: Vespertine (2001)
Giorgio Moroder: The Best of Giorgio Moroder (2001)
Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978)

-Michael Keefe