Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever To Tell
Featured Album
A workout that's hot and exhausting, but ultimately invigorating and rewarding
Yeah Yeah Yeahs' debut LP, Fever to Tell, is a quick 36 minutes of jagged guitars, urgent banshee yelps and snarling lines like "Boy, you just a stupid bitch and girl, you just a no-good dick." Karen O's vocal acrobatics range from shrieks in "Date With The Night" to jolting "uh-huhs" in "Black Tongue," while "Tick" finds her gasping for breath as she rapidly repeats the song's title.
After the burn of Fever's rigorous first two-thirds, the stuttering single tone of Nick Zinner's guitar and the low rumble of Brian Chase's drums at the start of "Maps" signal the sweet release. All chaos considered, it's a bit ironic that it's this — with its earnest plea, "Wait; they don't love you like I love you" — that broke the trio outside of their NYC home base. What follows is another high-energy blast in "Y Control," and two more love songs — the steady march of "Modern Romance" and the hushed "Poor Song," which ends in the line, "Well I may be just a fool/ But I know you're just as cool/ And cool kids, they belong together." Listening to Fever can often feel like a workout — hot and exhausting, but ultimately invigorating and rewarding.
