Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show The Bones

  by Jamie Rowland

published: 16 / 3 / 2006

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Review

Normally, as I’m sure you are aware, promos of new releases are sent to us from a number of labels and PR companies so that we can write our reviews and tell you all how great they are (hopefully). In the case of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs new record, ‘Show Your Bones’, the band’s label, Polydor, presumably to avoid the album being leaked before its release, however, invited a whole bunch of journos down to their offices to be plied with free beer and nibbles and to get a preview play of the LP. Never one to turn down anything with the word ‘free’ in it, I dutifully hopped on a train and headed up to London. Actually, "hopped" isn’t quite right. It was more like I missed the train I wanted to catch and had to wait for 15 minutes for another one, which then crawled its way into London extra slowly just to make sure I was really pushing it for time. On arriving at Victoria station, I had to get the tube on the District line to Earl's Court and then change to another, different District line to get to Kensington Olympia. The time seemed to be slipping away oh so very quickly. What seemed like a year later, I arrived at Kensington Olympia station, ready for a last rush to get to Polydor HQ for 6:30. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Kensington Olympia, but the station isn’t actually next to Kensington High Street, which is where I needed to be. To get there, you have to work your way through a small maze of little side streets first. Just as I was starting to worry that I was never going to find the place, I came across two guys who seemed to be asking each other directions to the same place. “Oh, are you here for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playback?” “Yeah, I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s late!” I excitedly stepped in and explained that I, too, was looking to get to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playback. We decided to pool our resources, and, with new found confidence, headed swiftly on to find the Polydor building. We got to Polydor about 5 minutes late to find that the album play was already starting. I don’t know about my two partners in lateness, but I was certainly feeling quite flustered by the time we actually got into the room, where the album had already reached track 3, ‘Fancy’. Immediately I thought how good it sounded, different to the songs from the band’s first release, ‘Fever to Tell’, but somehow still sounding very much like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I soon forgot all about my stressful journey, sitting back and enjoying the music that filled the small room (which really wasn’t very big, and was packed full of sweaty journalist types and a whole head of nibbles). I expect you’re probably expecting some sort of information about the album itself, aren’t you? You’re probably thinking "what the hell is this guy talking about? I want to hear about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs new album, not some arsehole’s night out!” I suppose that’s quite understandable. This article does, after all, however, claim to be an album preview. However, having only heard the album once all the way through, it wouldn’t really be fair for me to make any judgement on how good it is. I can say that I definitely enjoyed the album, it seemed to be a lot more varied than ‘Fever to Tell’, where the songs had a tendency to blend into each other and cancel each other out. The second half of the album certainly seemed to me to be a lot more attention grabbing than the first, and I remember being particularly drawn by the drums on ‘Honeybear’ and the very pop sound to songs like ‘Cheated Hearts’. ‘Show You Bones’ is certainly more accessible than ‘Fever…’, but that’s not to say that the band have compromised their sound in any way. If anything, the 3 year gap between releases has given the band the time to work and work at these songs until they feel they are ready to be released, and it was certainly in their favour to do things this way. The album as a whole has been put together very confidently, with a changing pace that goes from stomping rock to ‘Maps’ style indie-balladry effortlessly. The stand out-track for me was album closer ‘Turn Into’, a real epic of a song which brings the record to a close beautifully. Disappointingly, the record company felt it necessary to clumsily stick bonus track ‘Déjà Vu’ on the UK version of ‘Show Your Bones’. Not only does this not sit well next to the definite closer that is ‘Turn Into’, it is also the weakest song on the album; alright for a party maybe, but certainly nowhere near the standard set by the other songs on the record. So, 12 songs, several beers and a few nibbles later, I felt, overall, pretty satisfied with my evening out. Even at the time, though, I realised I wouldn’t be able to get enough info on the album into my article. "Hmm," I thought. "I need to think of some way to fill out my really rather pathetic album review so that it looks like I’ve actually done some work. But how? How…?"

Track Listing:-

1 Gold Lion
2 Way Out
3 Fancy
4 Phenomena
5 Honeybear
6 Cheated Hearts
7 Dudley
8 Mysteries
9 The Sweets
10 Warrior
11 Turn Into
12 Deja Vu