Yeah Yeah Yeahs could always bring a moment to its rattling crisis. The combination of Karen O's commanding voice, Nick Zinner's epic guitar scrawl and Brian Chase's breathy drum grooves is rare and riotous in a beautifully raw way. In the nine years since its last album, the band's members have released solo and collaborative projects, but that arena-filling house-party energy was missed.
"Spitting Off the Edge of the World" is a reclamation and a passing of the torch. TV on the Radio's David Sitek, who has worked as a producer on every YYYs album going back to 2002's Machine EP, understands the mission: Capture a spark and stretch it into oblivion. From cathedral-sized synths and windmilled power chords to drums that blur electronic and organic beats, everything here moves in cinematic slow motion, especially the rapturous EBow climax. Even when the band dips out to give Karen O and duet partner Perfume Genius (in a tastefully impactful feature) room to breathe, there's an atmospheric gravitas.
YYYs has long chronicled youthful debauchery and euphoria. On "Spitting Off the Edge of the World," the band recognizes the darkness of the years left behind, only to be filled by the rising generation's bursting light.
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