A few weeks back after it originally came out, I checked out the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, "Cool It Down." I have to be honest, I didn't expect to hear anything new from this band for a long, long while (although every dance party I've been to in the past decade has played "Heads Will Roll" at least once.) And largely speaking I pretty much bypassed any buzz about their return. But when it popped up in my Apple Music, I decided to listen to it - like a lot of indie/alt kids of my era, I was a huge fan of YYYs growing up.
"Cool It Down" was a bit of a departure from what I'd grown to expect from the YYYs in prior releases. This being said, it was a solid, to-the-point, and enjoyable album. (Also, it's rad to see it's from Secretly Canadian, one of my all-time favorite labels!) And despite feeling a bit more downtempo (to me at least) for them, there was some optimism that shined through the lyrics and melodies, and plus you can't deny several of the tracks off the album are catchy AF (such as "Different Today," and my personal favorite cut, "Wolf.") The one track I really didn't enjoy is actually the opener, the duet with Perfume Genius. I have a difficult time with Perfume Genius (they're very hit-or-miss for me), so I don't think it was totally on the YYYs. Candidly, I didn't think that song was executed well, but it may have just been the not-so-intuitive coupling of vocals on the song.
You can easily expect to see "Cool It Down" on the year-end best-of lists in a few months. And I hope this is just the beginning of a new time for the band and with more frequent releases in the future. (After all, apparently "indie sleaze" is making a comeback.)
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