New Waves.. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 'Sacrilege'

I've been eagerly awaiting the new Yeah Yeah Yeah's single every since they first give word of their forthcoming album, Mosquito. This new song, 'Sacrilege', dropped out of the blue yesterday, and I couldn't help but wonder if the band would hark back to the electro infused rock of their previous album, It's Blitz!, or back even further to their earlier, more jagged days.

'Sacrilige' however, manages to combine both. Singer, Karen O has a bit of a screech around her croon, it's low fi and slowly builds into a crescendo that's christens the listener by blasting them with an unexpected choir. If this is the first taste of YYY4, I am beyond excited for the rest of Mosquito!

http://www.yeahyeahyeahs.com/
http://www.facebook.com/yeahyeahyeahs

Flashback Friday.. Frank Ocean - 'Thinkin' Bout You'

Is this song old enough to be classed as a 'Flashback'? When creating this section of the blog, I made a guideline rule that all of the posts in this section had to have been released over a year prior  to me typing this (aka. pre-22nd Feb 2012). Alas, this falls a tad short with a release date of April 17th 2012, but due to a post that I will be putting up shortly, I feel that to throw out a real blast from the past would be a tad ironic.

Channel Orange, the everywhere-acclaimed album by rapper/singer Frank Ocean has been my turn-to lullaby for the past week or so (Jamie Woon once held the prestigious title), but with Tame Impala's Lonerism losing its sleepy-time sparkle, I dug out this album and -  fell in love with it. I originally downloaded Channel Orange after it topped many a 2012 year's end poll, and as a general music fan, I had to see what all the fuss was about. With my only prior knowledge of Frank Ocean being that he was a member of the infamy inducing rap troupe Odd Future(Wolf Gang Kill Them All)/OFWGKTA, and with interweb denizens kicking up a fuss over the fact that a bisexual rapper could exist - even in this day and age, it is fair to say that Channel Orange was not what I expected.

First of all, it was subtle, and nowhere near as affronting or in your face as Odd Future or Tyler the Creator's music has been. Second, it was impeccably stylish and atmospheric, down to the very last detail, mixing R'n'B with movie soundscapes, creative lyrical metaphors and references to Cleopatra. You've more than likely been exposed to some of Ocean's songs already.  My favourite though, along with the epic 10 minute anthem, 'Pyramids', has to be the beautiful and delicate 'Thinkin' Bout You'. The song lulls mystically through 3-and-a-half minutes of raw emotion, love longing and loss. It really is beautiful, and manages to draw the listener in so close that they may share Frank Ocean's feelings with him as if they were their own.

http://frankocean.com/

https://twitter.com/frank_ocean

Flashback Friday.. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - 'Heads Will Roll'

What's this? A post? A Flashback - for Friday!?

I know, shocking isn't it?

Today I spotted that the Yeah Yeah Yeah's are doing a three date tour of the UK (Manchester O2 Apollo, Leeds O2 Academy, and London at Alexandra Palace), having recently announced the forthcoming arrival of their fourth album, MOSQUITO. As of yet, there doesn't appear to be an announcement in regards of a single, though Karen O has shocked my soul by bleaching her hair to a platinum blonde (!), so let's refresh ourselves of how AWEsome the Yeah Yeah Yeah's were in the years prior to their sabbatical!

Aside from Karen O's collaboration with Atticus Ross and Nine Inch Nails maestro Trent Reznor in their contribution  for the soundtrack for the western re-hash of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (they covered 'Immigrant Song'), the last we heard of the YYY's was 'Skeletons', the final single from It's Blitz!. The album was a departure from the YYY's of old, with Nick Zinner exchanging his guitars for keyboards on some of the tracks, and my favourite track from the album has to be a song where these aforementioned keyboards were used to full emphatic effect.

'Heads Will Roll' was a stomping indie dance-floor anthem, poppy, and perfect for club remixing (the A-Trak remix is very good!), and unlike anything that, at the time, they had done before. It's one of the standout tracks from the album, for me, along with 'Zero' and 'Soft Shock'.

Anyway, if you haven't heard 'Heads Will Roll' before, check out the creepy music video, and if you have - reminisce!

A reminder of the 3 UK dates:

1 May
Manchester
O2 Apollo

2 May
Leeds
O2 Academy

4 May
London
Alexandra Palace