Back in June, Yeah Yeah Yeahs teased their first new music in over nine years – a single titled ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the Word’. To punctuate the news of their return, they announced the details of their fifth studio album, Cool It Down – a collection of eight tracks that demonstrate the band’s expert craftsmanship. Snagged from a lesser known Velvet Underground song, the album title references our overheated political and geographical climate.
Featuring Perfume Genius, ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World’ serves as a perfect opening track – the haunting and powerful song is cocooned by the interplay of his and Karen O’s distinctive vocals. Karen O’s vocals are somewhat subdued throughout the album, allowing the spotlight to be placed on the striking instrumentation – something that’s particularly prevalent on the eerie ‘Lovebomb’ and beat-ridden ‘Blacktop’.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a band that have continued to evolve throughout the career and Cool It Down reflects this. Though they appear to have favoured the churning of synthesisers over guitar riffs on this record, they’re not short of pop anthems and have stumbled into several potential radio hits – including the shimmering ‘Different Today’ and majestic ‘Wolf’.
A lot has changed in nines year’s and one in particular has a huge influence on the albums closing track. Karen O became a Mother in 2015 and this is something that she addresses in the delicate ‘Mars’, which sees her narrate over a twinkling synth.
Sometimes when an album’s short, you can feel a bit cheated, but this isn’t the case at all with Cool It Down – each track is finely tuned and there’s no filler in sight. Some fans may feel slightly disgruntled that the album lacks the urgency and discordance of the band’s earlier material, but it’s a distillation of the New York trios strengths that perfectly encapsulates their refreshing desire to look forward.
Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs is out now through Secretly Canadian
