Yeah Yeah Yeahs"Fever to Tell"

Interscope Records

Grade: B+

Yeah! Yeah!! Yeah!!! The eagerly anticipated full-length album from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs should not disappoint fans of their 2001 self-titled debut EP.

Most of "Fever to Tell" is marked by short, peppy songs similar to "Mystery Girl" and "Bang" from the earlier EP. Lead singer Karen O craftily alternates singing and shrieking, bringing a great, unpolished, live flavor to the album. Karen O, of course, is famous for her crazed presence at stage shows. Fortunately, she manages to bring her personality across to CD listeners as well.

The opening track, "Rich," is the catchiest song on the album, due to the infectious melody alternated with Karen O's repeated whispering of the word "rich." She uses a similar effect in other songs, such as "Tick" and "Black Tongue," emphasizing a single word or sound in a powerful manner.

Most of the album's songs clock in under three minutes, which is the perfect amount of time for Karen O to reach a musical peak before she runs out of breath from her interesting blend of screaming, whispering and singing.

But despite their perfect old-school punk attitude, lyrically the Yeah Yeah Yeahs leave room for improvement. For example, the song "Pin" contains few other words than the repeated phrase, "I'm gonna sleep with him." This works for a two-minute track, but also gives the listener the impression that the band has a lot more style than substance.

The album is also somewhat disjointed. It starts out very punk but eventually mellows into slower rock ballads such as "Maps" and "Y Control." These later songs are interesting, but lack the emotional intensity of the album's beginning. In "Y Control," Karen O almost sounds bored and as if she is simply going through the motions of singing, desperate to speed up the track in her usual punk manner.

"Modern Romance," the album's closing song, is a slower, more experimental song. But it does remind listeners that Karen O has a beautiful, sultry singing voice when she tires of shrieking. "People will say all kinds of things / that don't mean a damned thing / because all I see is what's in front of me / that's you," she sings, over solid, if soft background music from guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase in this love song.

For a debut full-length album, "Fever to Tell" demonstrates that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have a lot of potential, more than usual, and a bright future ahead of them. Sure, more depth is needed, but that will come with time - the band members are only in their early 20s. And in a musical world now filled with other garage-rock bands such as the Strokes, the Vines and the Hives, Karen O's compelling personality manages to make this band stand out from the pack.



- Jamie Freed