Yeah Yeah Yeahs - IT'S BLITZ! (LP) M

Personnel: Tunde Adebimpe, Karen O (vocals); Nick Zinner (guitar, guitars, keyboards, bass instrument, drum machine); Imaad Wasif (guitar); Jane Scarpantoni (cello); Stuart Bogie (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone); Eric Biondo (trumpet); Greg Kurstin (piano); Brian Chase (drums, cymbals, percussion).
Audio Mixer: Mark "Spike" Stent.
Recording information: Long View Farm Studios, North Brookfield, MA; Seedy Underbelly, Valley Village, CA; Sonic Ranch Studios, Tornillo, TX; Stay Gold Studios, Brooklyn, NY; The Boat, Los Angeles, CA.
Photographers: Eric Uhlir; David Belisle; Autumn de Wilde.
On their third full-length, critically embossed New York trio the Yeah Yeah Yeahs embrace immersive dancefloor sonics ? la Daft Punk and MGMT full bore with a metamorphosis that works remarkably for a band with noisy avant-garage beginnings. Placing Karen O's signature carnal snark astride eruptive synthesizer throbs, "Zero" and "Heads Will Roll" provide a dramatic opening one-two punch. Somewhat surprisingly given the album's title, the band subsequently opts for mellower, more amorphous tracks like the almost Celtic "Skeletons" and the orchestral "Runaway," both of which foreground a cinematic sweep and a more pensive, tuneful Ms. O.
"Dull Life" finds them hitching their trademark explosive choruses to a Brian Eno-esque soundscape, while "Dragon Queen" one-ups the Ting Tings with a layered and deeply satisfying electro-funk groove anchored by the trio's beat master, Brian Chase. The high-profile mid-career rock-band jump to the disco has been tried before, but IT'S BLITZ! suits the YYYs better than, say, U2 with POP. Nick Zinner's affected guitar breaks have always had the precision and texture of electro's synth riffs, and Ms. O's sing-songy hooks possess a lot more lipsmacking sensuality than Bono's ever did.

• Genre: Rock
• Format: CD