Yeah Yeah Yeahs

On an aesthetic level, today’s YYYs are barely recognisable from their 2001 days when Karen had more in common with a snarling, unkempt Peaches than neo-punk era Björk. Comparing her primordial yowls on ‘Art Star’ (oh, that glorious noise) to the more radiofriendly tunes off It’s Blitz! – or even the Discovery Channel backing-track favourite ‘Gold Lion’ (sigh) – is like pitting a gritty heavyweight in an artful kickboxing bout – the punch is still there, sans the unrelenting viciousness. That’s not to say the band has gone soft; in fact you couldn’t be further from the truth. They may not be the filthy spleen-shrivelling punks of yore, but have evolved into an immortal sort of ‘band for the ages’ with an iron grip on the fickle indie scene.