It's Blits : Deluxe Edition (Intl Ver.)

大胆不敵！予測不可能！全人類の五感に訴える刺激的アルバム！ヤー・ヤー・ヤーズ　3年ぶりのNEW ALBUM！「緩やかに燃える最高傑作」（オヴザーヴァー誌）＆「ここ10年間の中のBEST ALBUMの一枚」（NME）。とリリース前から既にメディアが太鼓判を押す本作は、過去をチラっと振り返りながら、同時に前進を遂げているアルバム。ファースト・シングル、'Zero'はすでに大人気のエレクトロニック・ダンス・フロア・アンセム。プロデューサーには、ニック・ローネイ（EP "IS IS"）＆とデイヴィッド・シーテック（長年のコラボレーターでありTV ON THE RADIOのメンバー）を迎え、レコーディングはLong View Studio（マサチューセッツ）→ ブルックリンのコンプレックス → テキサス砂漠にあるトルニージョにあるスタジオで行われた。サウンドを取り仕切るニック・ジナー（G）は、オークションでヴィンテージ・キーボード（カーズや、ジョイ・ディヴィジョン、クラフトワークらが使用していたのと同じ型のヴィンテージ・アープ・シンセ）を購入し、要所要所で印象的なサウンドを作り出し、加えている。

Entertainment Weekly - "Karen O spends much of IT'S BLITZ! delivering her yearning yowl over gently burbling keyboard chords instead of Zinner's trademark circular-saw riffs....Subbing out an instrument and switching up the tempo that way is a fairly radical change." -- Grade: B+ Rolling Stone - 4 stars out of 5 -- "The turn towards the dance floor makes sense: Yeah Yeah Yeahs are drawing on a tradition of arty New York dance punk that extends from the Talking Heads to TV on the Radio, whose guitarist, Dave Sitek, co-produced IT'S BLITZ!" Record Collector - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Opener 'Zero' sees them wholeheartedly embracing the 80s revival wave -- only, trust them to do it with a fresh rawness that's as invigorating as anything on their debut EP." Spin - "[T]he alternative pop album of the decade -- one that imbues the Killers' HOT FUSS and MGMT's ORACULAR SPECTACULAR with a remarkable emotional depth and finesse." Clash - "With new influences and some widescreen moments, IT'S BLITZ finds Yeah Yeah Yeahs refreshed, rejuvenated and raring to go." Pitchfork - "[T]he Yeah Yeah Yeahs still create great, compelling pop-rock, largely because of the way the songs themselves are organized, with conventional verse-chorus structures repeatedly eschewed in favor of detours, miniature grooves and lengthy asides..." Down Beat - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he deeper you move into IT'S BLITZ! the better it gets thanks to the variety and delivery." Blender - 4 stars out of 5 -- "IT'S BLITZ is the sound of a band reborn with new momentum, and on an album that requires dancing, the message is clear: It doesn't matter where you came from. Just keep moving." Spin - Ranked #2 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2009" -- "IT'S BLITZ! did what a third album should: push a successful formula in a thrillingly risky direction." Entertainment Weekly - Included in Entertainment Weekly's 'Best Albums of 2009' -- "Nick Zinner's hipster-Hendrix guitar squalls are replaced with moody-smoothy synth work." Uncut - 4 stars out of 5 -- "IT'S BLITZ! bristles and sighs with the confidence of a group that has found a way to evolve into something glossy and commercially aerodynamic without entirely losing sight of its grimy garage-rock past." Rolling Stone (p.82) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "The turn towards the dance floor makes sense: Yeah Yeah Yeahs are drawing on a tradition of arty New York dance punk that extends from the Talking Heads to TV on the Radio, whose guitarist, Dave Sitek, co-produced IT'S BLITZ!" Spin (p.84) - "[T]he alternative pop album of the decade -- one that imbues the Killers' HOT FUSS and MGMT's ORACULAR SPECTACULAR with a remarkable emotional depth and finesse." Entertainment Weekly (p.64) - "Karen O spends much of IT'S BLITZ! delivering her yearning yowl over gently burbling keyboard chords instead of Zinner's trademark circular-saw riffs....Subbing out an instrument and switching up the tempo that way is a fairly radical change." -- Grade: B+ Clash (magazine) (p.106) - "With new influences and some widescreen moments, IT'S BLITZ finds Yeah Yeah Yeahs refreshed, rejuvenated and raring to go." Record Collector (magazine) (p.96) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Opener 'Zero' sees them wholeheartedly embracing the 80s revival wave -- only, trust them to do it with a fresh rawness that's as invigorating as anything on their debut EP." Uncut - "The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have once again raised the bar both for themselves and for the other bands that remain in their shadow"

Brooklyn's Yeah Yeah Yeahs led an art-rock insurrection with their debut album 'Fever To Tell' in 2003, and the long-awaited release of their third, 'It's Blitz', cements them as more than merely scene figureheads. While it shares occasional sonic similarities to their earlier work, the majority of 'It's Blitz' sees the band tackling more intricate and considered territory. However, with lead single 'Zero' they prove that they still know how to marshal the dancefloor, albeit with an unexpectedly industrial-sounding edge.|

Never content to stay in one musical place for very long, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs take their restlessness to the limit on It's Blitz! -- and wind up making some of their most contented-sounding songs. As if to prove one more time that they're not just the architects of New York's early-2000s rock renaissance, Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase strip away the guitars and explosive dynamics of their early work even more thoroughly here than they did on Show Your Bones. In their place are shiny keyboards, synthetic sounds galore, and a very different kind of energy. It's Blitz!'s images of a woman's hand bursting an egg and fleshy tomatoes and mushrooms spread across an otherwise empty pizza box are surprising, immediate, and strangely sensual, and that goes double for the actual music. The album's first three songs are a blitz of bliss, especially "Zero," which kicks things off with blatantly fake beats, revved-up synth arpeggios, and O's command to "get your leather on." Radiating joy and confidence, she and the rest of the band couldn't be further from Show Your Bones' introspection as the song climbs to ecstatic heights. "Heads Will Roll" shows just how ably the Yeah Yeah Yeahs blend their rock firepower with dance surroundings, as Zinner's prickly guitars get equal time with spooky synth strings and O makes "you are chrome" sound like the coolest compliment ever. Meanwhile, "Soft Shock"'s dreamy, almost naive-sounding electronics make O's vocals -- which are much less affected than ever before -- feel even more natural and vulnerable. Elsewhere, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and producers David Sitek and Nick Launay find other ways to shake things up, from the disco kiss chase of "Dragon Queen," which features Sitek's fellow TV on the Radio member Tunde Adebimpe on backing vocals, to "Shame and Fortune," which pares down the band's tough, sexy rock to its most vital essence and provides Chase and Zinner with a showcase not found anywhere else on the album. However, It's Blitz!'s bold moments are a bit misleading: the album's heart is often soft and searching, offering some of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' quietest work yet. This approach doesn't always work, as on the too-long "Runaway," but when it connects, the results are gorgeous. "Skeletons" is luminous with an oddly Celtic-tinged synth part; "Hysteric," a love song about being happy with someone rather than trying to make him or her stay, feels like the mirror twin of "Maps." The serenity in It's Blitz!'s ballads feels worlds apart from Show Your Bones in a much less obvious way than the album's outbursts. But between the violently happy songs and the softer ones, this is some of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' most balanced and cohesive music. ~ Heather Phares

キラキラした音色のヴィンテージ・シンセを導入してムーディーに生まれ変わったヤー・ヤー・ヤーズが、TVオン・ザ・レディオのデヴィッド・シーテックとニック・ローネイをプロデューサーに迎えて3年ぶりに新作を投下。冒頭の“Zero”からしてグリッターなダンス・ナンバーでビックリなんですが、カレン・Oが〈死ぬまで踊れ!〉と歌う2曲目“Heads Will Roll”がニューウェイヴ・ディスコだったり、続く3曲目“Soft Shock”でもドラマティックで色気たっぷりのシンセと歌を披露していたり……。ガレージ・ロック色の強い“Dull Life”や不穏でふてぶてしい“Shame And Fortune”みたいな〈らしい〉曲もあるけど、総じてバンドの変化を楽しんでいるような、大胆不敵な出来映えに。こんなの誰が予想できた?
bounce (C)青木 正之