Track of the Week: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Turn Into (2006)

Yeah, apologies for not writing this nine months before the album was released. For a band that rose to fame largely on account of the lead singer's dresses and being the Strokes' favourites, Yeah Yeah Yeahs have made some suprisingly engaging, if hardly original, music. And, crucially, unlike their peers, each new YYYs release has been acompanied by a broadening of their sound. Whilst almost every other current New York band (Liars excepted, but that's another story) opted to follow their first album with an inferior copy, YYYs development from the rough-hewn, if hardly straight-ahead, garage pop of their first ep to a band capable of producing the sublime 'Maps' on their debut album 'Fever To Tell' suggested that the follow up would bring a further evolution of their sound. Although they certainly made us wait for it, 'Show Your Bones' lives up to all expectations - it is more musically diverse than 'Fever' but loses none of the debut's passion or intensity, and even manages to sound strikingly individual for a 2006 indie album. The highlight of the album and arguably their career so far is the closer, 'Turn Into'.The song starts off with gentle acoustic guitar and, of course, Karen O's instantly recognisable vocals. Karen O is perhaps the single most charismatic frontperson in modern indie rock, and her delivery - pitched somewhere between Siouxsie Sioux and Anabella Lwin - manages to buoy her somewhat vague lyrics. Here she displays genuine vulnerability and regret, managing to put emotion into clumsy lines such as 'Leave it where it can't remind us / Turn this all around behind us'. She is matched every inch of the way by guitarist Nic Zinner and drummer Brian Chase, as the song rises from its accoustic beginnings to determined, driving rock. The band really impress in the middle section, with the entry of delicate piano followed by a searing yet melodic guitar solo. As the solo burns out, we are left again with just vocals and acoustic guitar, which are interupted midline, creating a feeling of spontaneity despite the big-budget production. Although they are just as retro as their contemporaries, I feel that YYYs have somehow managed to transcend both the garage rock and post punk revivals, and I'm not entirely sure why. It is probably due largely to their charisma, and their ability to invest their songs with a burning passion and intensity in place of, say, the Strokes' fashionably cool, dead-eyed ennui which ultimately saps their music of any real emotional impact. However, to put it down entirely to that is to deny the band's musical strengths - although at times they'd greatly benefit from a bassist to anchor down their sound, Nick Zinner's channeling of the blues and No Wave is never less then compelling, even on their weaker songs, and Brian Chase's propulsive drumming somehow manages to keep the whole thing together. Topped off with Karen O's distinctive yelp, although their sound certainly has precedent, they manage to sound like no one else on the modern indie scene. Which these days is an achievement in itself.