Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Fever to Tell
4.5

{Interscope Records}

Many bands have been destroyed by hype. The public awaits their debut album, salivating at the doors of their local Virgin Megastore, and when the said LP finally drops, it– to put it mildly– sucks.

I have been waiting for Fever to Tell, the first album of New York power-trash trio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, for over a year. After two brilliant EPs (2002’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP and Machine EP) and more press than Jesus, the band signed with Interscope Records (a career move that many an indie snob scoffed at–how could they enjoy an act that would be labelmates with Eminem?) and promised the release of an album so good it would make your skull burst open in a frenzy of sparks and molten lava (or something in that league).

So we waited. And waited. And waited a little more. And finally, last month, Fever hit stores, and I was there to get my fix. Now, mind you, upon purchasing Fever, I had yet to listen to a single track in its entirety, and even on my way home from the record store, I kept nagging myself: Was the album worth the wait? Was the hype true or just, well, hype?

As the first track, “Rich,” opens with grimy synthesizers, a growly drumbeat courtesy of Brian Chase (who also beats skins for punks the Seconds), and singer/fashion experiment Karen O snarling “I’m rich / I’ll take you out boy!” it seems to be scoffing right back at the snobs who accused them of selling out. This is definitely a good start. The CD continues on the same note, following with the first single, “Date with the Night,” which has the most intense guitar riffing since God knows when (the fact Y3 guitarist Nick Zinner makes all those layers of noise with only one guitar is a mystery akin to the Loch Ness Monster or the Bermuda Triangle).

But the art-punk essence that made Yeah Yeah Yeahs an alternative rock household name resonates in what is easily the best track on the album, a one-minute-49-second spurt of Karen yelps and Nick riffs called “Tick.” One of O’s most endearing tricks is her ability to repeat the same word for minutes on end, apparently for no other mission then to see you get your groove on to her sleazy screams. While listening to “Tick,” I felt the sonic equivalent of an S&M session that left me feeling exquisitely dirty, especially after hearing O yell in my headphones “You look like shit!” before rupturing my eardrums with a few guttural wails.

It would seem like after that, anything else on the album would just be bonus, but Y3 doesn’t cease to amaze, with a (gasp!) ballad, “Maps,” in which a heart-torn O whispers to her fleeting man “Wait / They don’t love you like I love you.” On this particular track, O sounds like Gwen Stefani, if she had the least speck of punk cred left to her name. With “Maps,” the band members gives you their hearts on a plate, before taking them back and shoving them down your throat with the following track, “Y Control,” an orgy of power-chords and distortion pedals.

In short, Fever to Tell is a great album, channeling the angst and sarcastic despair of being young and helpless post-9/11. In the song “Man,” O squeals out the line “We’re all gonna burn in hell!” as if she’s totally looking forward to it. In the cover art, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are depicted in a grubby alleyway, with wild manes of flames erupting from their heads. In our hearts, they have the courage to yell the things we’ve always wished we had yelled, and the sexiness to do them. That’s right folks, the kids aren’t all right: Their heads are on fire.