Yeah Yeah Yeahs Album: “Is Is”

If you want to be strict about it, "Is Is" is not new material.

It was originally recorded waaaayyyyy back when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were touring their debut album "Fever to Tell" for the very first time. So it's got the freshness of new material, with the gusto of their frenetic frenetic post-punk here -- it feels like you're going on a nighttime rampage with these guys.

It opens with the thumping intro of "Rockers to Swallow," a volcanic punk ode that seethes with screaming, roaring riffs and smashing drums. "Tell me we're rockers to swallow/Tell me we're knockers to bite/And out of the beats of tomorrow/Tell me what beat fills the night!" Karen O shouts in her raw voice.

It sounds like a a night out at a really dirty, crazy club, which makes "Down Boy" -- all grimy riffs and trembly keyboard -- sound like a breather. They extend their sound further with the driving rock'n'roll anthem "Kiss Kiss", which seems to be about a threesome ("We're three we're three in the dark tonight/And baby my snake is a shark tonight").

And finally "Is Is" winds up with two very dissimilar songs. First it's "Isis," a stately confection of ringing riffs and pulse-like percussion -- it's a good song, but it only breaks loose at the very end. And it finishes with "10x10," a blazing rocker with bubbling electronic edges.

"Is Is" was apparently recorded during a very tough, emotionally turbulent period in the band's history, back before they proved that they were here to stay. Maybe it's because they were touring, but "Is Is" sounds like a wild'n'crazy night out -- drugs, sex, fast driving and maybe smashing somebody with a guitar.

Most of the instrumentation is simple, even if the melodies aren't -- Nick Zinner sets the tone with guitars that twist, screech, loop on themselves, and smash ahead like a thunderstorm, while Brian Chase does some really dazzling jazzy drums as well as his usual smashing ones. A could songs even have some trembling, shivering keyboard.

In this EP, Karen O is... Karen O. What can I say? She has a voice that can scream raw howls at you, then turn into a torchy croon ("Down... down, boy, down!"). And she can sing the songs about dismembered lovers, seaslines and "rockers to swallow" with the rage or pensiveness they require, but always with gusto ("10 X 10, 3 X 3/Was the house that buried me/Did I really drown?").

"Is Is" is a richly rambunctious nugget of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' solid post-punk, and it's about time we finally got to hear these great little songs. Definitely worth getting.

The latest release from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is a mere five song E.P. that is somewhat reminiscent of their pre-Fever to Tell output. If while listening to Is Is you get the feeling that these songs sound like natural descendants to the YYYs early releases, like their self-titled debut and Machine, there's a good reason for such suspicions: these songs were actually written around the same time as those early E.P.s. For their latest release the YYYs grabbed a bunch of older songs and re-recorded them. Unlike the rest of us, when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs look under their couch cushions instead of finding loose change they just happen to find a handful of unused songs.

Working against their more recent, more polished work, the latest YYYs release feels as if the whole affair was bound together by a bunch of rusty bolts. While the songs have more of an edge than the YYYs' indie-pop numbers, they're hardly a retread of their early days. The stuttering pace of "Rockers to Swallow" sounds as if the drums and guitar would collapse if Karen O's snarl didn't whip them along all the way to the finish line. There's a sense of space that wasn't present in YYYs' early fits of noise, which makes it even more important for the trio to play off one another. For his part, Brian Chase takes an opportunity for more complexity and drum fills, Nick Zinner expands his oeuvre with some psychadelia on "Isis," and while avoiding any conventional melodies, Karen O showcases her strengths as a front woman. Is Is sounds like a sort of missing link between the YYYs' early songs and their first album.

Considering that these songs were written long before this E.P. was recorded, I don't think the YYYs are necessarily hinting at a new direction. From "Art Star" to "Cheated Hearts" the YYYs have already proven they shriek as well as they can sing, but it is comforting to know that they haven't completely given up on shrieking. Here's hoping that instead of plotting their songs along a pop/noise spectrum they realize there doesn't have to be much of a difference between the two.

I'm not a rabid fan who goes to their shows, so I had never heard any of these songs. I would definitely stack this album up against the two full lengths. This is not a typical EP for fans only. All of these songs are as accessible as the mainstream tracks from Fever to Tell. The hi-light for me is Kiss Kiss, but they are all great (except Rockers to Swallow is just okay). Great price too.

After a drab and boring second album ("Show Your Bones"), YYY return with a short, sharp shock of screeching, caterwauling rock music that reminds us of why we loved them to begin with. Like an electric wire straight into the rock and roll pleasure center in your brain.

I'm tempted to say it's a crime that these aren't the five most popular songs of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs career, but that's not quite right. Released a year after Show Your Bones, Is Is shows the same song craft of that album with the "rawer" sex and release songs of Fever To Tell. Its opening song "Rockers To Swallow" is absolutely the height of both, its title itself a sly capitulation of Karen O's sense of ferocity and sexuality, and the song itself is ragingly loud and vicious. It reminded me, on first listen, of Show Your Bones's hard-hitting "Fancy," but on its own it's much more, a snarling beast of commanding bad attitude. That's where the album expands on the DIY indie crankiness of Fever To Tell (and I love Fever To Tell) - it's the album in which Karen O is in full embrace of her outsize, mesmerizing bigger-than-life ferocity and showmanship. Even at 5 songs, it's impossible to miss how confident and muscular the sounds of Is Is are - "Isis" an intoxicating and tuneful maneater anthem, and "10 x 10" so melodically unnerving. But truly the YYY classic here is "Kiss Kiss," a commanding creation of Karen O's breathy, wild delivery. At first glance, she's never sounded more like Siouxsie Sioux, but there's no doubt Siouxsie and the Banshees didn't have a song like "Kiss Kiss" in them, by the time it reaches its command of "Everyone kiss me!," the demand is completely unnecessary - you couldn't possibly love the band and Karen O any more than you already do.