I thought the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were done. Their last record came out in 2013 (Mosquito, which didn’t register on the Bacon Review that year), and no one had heard from them in literal years. So when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs tweeted “Cannot wait to play you some tunes old and NEW! New music! New Era!” in May 2022, along with a set of upcoming shows in NY and LA in October, the music blogging industry started to froth at the mouth.

Cool It Down, the band’s fifth LP in their 20+ year history, came out on September 30. The release of the album was preceded by the lead single / loud declaration of reemergence “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” which featured Perfume Genius (#15 in 2010) on guest vocals. It’s a slow, droning, powerful statement, indirectly related to the climate crisis. “I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiance,” lead singer Karen O about the song. “It’s galvanizing, and there’s hope there.”

The rest of the album is just as good. It feels more grown up, less raw, than their earlier efforts. There are more instruments at play, including a plethora of keyboards. It’s still unmistakably Karen O, and therefore unmistakably Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Picking a favorite song from the wealth of goodness isn’t easy, but once I watched the video for “Wolf,” shown above, starring Britt Lower (who you’ll recognize from Apple TV+’s “Severance”), I suddenly had a favorite. The band has also released videos for the “The Big Sleep” and “Spitting Off the Edge of the World.”

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs aren’t for everyone, and I doubt there’s anyone reading this who hasn’t already decided which side of the YYYs line they fall. If you didn’t like them before, there’s nothing here that’s going to change your opinion. But if you’ve been a fan anywhere in the last two decades, this will do nothing to change that opinion, either. Give it a listen at the links below to confirm.

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31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

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A single song selection pulled from each album.

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