Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito
Interscope: 2013

For those too young to appreciate their youth, let me get this out of the way up top: growing old is a drag. Things don’t work as well as they used to. Hangovers last approximately all day. You start thinking about things like insurance policies and fixed interest rates.

But if you’re the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, growing old is especially fraught with peril. From the onset of their decade-long career, the band has been creative, inventive and fun – typically the first few things that old age drags down the gutter with it, along with that hair you used to enjoy so much.

Thankfully, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs haven’t changed much in their old age. They’re still the ballsy art-rockers led by the magical Karen O, and they’re still writing tunes that make you think, tunes that make you cringe, but always make you keep listening.

The album opens with their lead single “Sacrilege”, featuring a bipolar Karen O “falling for a guy, (who) fell down from the sky.” It’s an auspicious beginning in that the song is so good, like someone put the album on shuffle, the album’s centerpiece is out of place.

The sublime “Subway” follows, complete with sampled train tracks and an eerie atmosphere that seems to swell in support O’s plaintive vocals. It’s the sound of someone losing their grip, reality is escaping in regular intervals, but it’s almost soothing in its regularity. The trains might not lead anywhere pleasant, but at least the trains on time.

The title track is next, and it’s a bizarre bit of art-rock. With insect-like single-mindedness, O hovers over the central conceit (she’s a mosquito, she will suck your blood) until the listener either surrenders or bails entirely. Say what you will about the song’s effectiveness, this is still clearly a band that goes for it. It’s in these moments you remember facts like Karen O dumped olive oil all over herself before the band’s fateful first show.

Then towards the end, the experiments start going awry. Dave Sitek’s glitchy production (“These Paths”) short-circuits the momentum before an all too literal  alien invasion (“Area 52”) and the maligned, unnecessary Dr. Octagon feature on “Buried Alive”. They are still going for it, but it’d be nice to be in on the joke, as opposed to feeling like you’re on the butt-end of it.

Ultimately, the record rebounds well. “Despair” and “Wedding Song” pack emotional punches in different ways, showcasing some creativity and cleverness still wonderfully intact at this stage of their career.

Much has changed in the decade since the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s helped usher in a renaissance of New York rock. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but Mosquito shows the band hasn’t stopped experimenting and still has enough ideas to inspire another wave of will-be weirdos.

Sure, growing old sucks, but you can still have some fun along the way. Olive oil optional.

3 out of 5