yeah yeah yeahs

Nothing better summarizes the overall intensity of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz! than the album's cover image: a stillshot of a woman's hand squeezing and shattering an egg, with its yolk exploding into midair. This moment of rupture is at once crisp and chaotic, defiant and deliberate.

The New York band's third album might at first seem like it's selling out to the infectious danceability of synth-based beats, but the Yeah Yeah Yeahs handle their newly diversified sound with classic edge. The opener, "Zero," is a surprisingly upbeat flurry of Blondie-esque electrical sound, but it's when the band does disco that their strongest track emerges. "Heads Will Roll" is assertive and addictive. Against a heavy backdrop of '70s synthesizers, Karen O produces the best ten seconds of the album, as she commands, "Off, off with your head/ Dance, dance 'til you're dead." And it's hard not to obey the latter of her demands.

Slowing it down, "Runaway" is a refreshingly simple and pure rock ballad, while the melodic "Hysteric" has the steadiness that made popular 2003 single "Maps" so easy on the ears. For those that prefer the band's earlier work, "Skeletons" is a throwback to the sharpness of Karen O's voice that brought her fame in the first place.

Coming three years after Show Your Bones, It's Blitz! proves that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have grown, but still remain faithful to their roots. And true to their word, they're set to make some heads roll.