Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

“It’s pretty amazing how fragile the dynamic is between the three of us.” Karen O told Spin recently. She is speaking of the fragility that led to the one third LA, two third New York based Yeah Yeah Yeahs pulling in very different directions during the recording of ‘Show Your Bones.’ A fragility that has since left her and guitarist Nick Zinner barely on speaking terms. A fragility that seems destined to soon or later shatter the band. But it is one that, if the worst does happen, has allowed them to leave behind an utter masterpiece.

Circumstance is often a great thing in music. Most may disagree but the band’s debut ‘Fever To Tell’ never quite captured the raw and (as Melissa Maerz puts it) “scabby kneed sexuality” of their earlier EP’s. Either way, bullish repetition, as appealing and easy as it may have appeared, was best avoided. Enter O almost breaking her back while on tour, the certain break up of a relationship and her subsequent move to LA. For The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s this meant Karen on once coast ready to go into the studio with Sam Spiegel (aka Squeak E. Clean, younger brother of Spike Jonze) and Zinner and drummer Brian Chase on the other scrapping to retain their New York heritage. The resolution was clearly fraught with tension but the outcome is one of glorious compromise.

‘Show Your Bones’ is a deeply personal album. Where five years ago O snarled, “As a fuck, son. You sucked” (Bang), she now laments “I’m breaking the news, Love nearly beat us.” (Dudley) This is a break up record and one in which the lead player’s trademark ferocity has found room for some, well, fragility. From her ruthless attack in ‘Honey Bear’ and ‘Mysteries’ to the beautifully understated vocals of ‘Dudley’ and ‘Sweet’, O simply furthers her case as one of the generation’s finest lead singers.

No matter how fine a musician you are, someone with the presence of Karen O will always loom largest. For Zinner and Chase must therefore just play their part but, and this is the key to ‘Show Your Bones’ excellence, they do so spectacularly. They insure that the ‘mature’ studio comforts don’t completely compromise the uniquely stark Yeah Yeah Yeahs style. Zinner’s hand is obvious everywhere from the dirtily riffed ‘Phenomena’ to the ‘Maps-esque’ restraint of ‘Way Out.’

Indeed it’s when, with one minute and fifty five seconds remaining, Zinner spikes ‘Turn Into’ with a Mercury Rev-like rousing finale, ‘Show Your Bones’ reveals itself to be an instant classic. It’s a stunning record that perfectly captures a very exact moment of time of a quite remarkable band. If this is it for the Yeah Yeahs, if the relationship between singer and guitarist becomes untenable, then, with ‘Show Your Bones’, they will have left behind a fine legacy.