Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Zero"

[mtm4319]

My review in 15 words or less:

Imagine if Karen O, Shirley Manson, and Gwen Stefani had a threesome.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO4Qk_R1uos

That's how good this song is. I've probably listened to it 15-20 times in a day and a half. Not sure how well it will do on the Alt chart, but hopefully at least top 20.

[halo19]

I hear some Siouxsie Sioux to an extent, as well. It's a fantastic alt/dance song. I wasn't really expecting this direction after the more bare-bones pop direction of Show Your Bones or even the "return to form"-sounding Is Is EP.

I haven't really heard a song from them that I don't like, though.

[a Nick O!]

Upon such high praise from Matt in two different places today, I bit.

It's decent, upon first listen, but I don't really understand where your rabid enthusiasm for it comes from. That's perfectly fine, though. Instant #1?

I wasn't expecting electronics and synths and virtually no resemblance to their bare-bones indie rock of yore. Although electronic musical textures and influences are the wave of the future, clearly. (It's a wonder there was ever a backlash against new wave, industrial and "electronica," and not a natural, baby-step incorporation into organic rock music sooner.

I don't hear Shirley or Gwen so much, but rather Chrissie Hynde. Also, in those breathy, repetitive short phrases, I hear someone else I can't put my finger on for the life of me. Possibly Siouxsie Sioux, I don't know; it's been a long time since I listened to their music.

[mtm4319]

Feb 28, 2009 5:14:49 GMT -4 a Nick O! said:

Upon such high praise from Matt in two different places today, I bit.

It's decent, upon first listen, but I don't really understand where your rabid enthusiasm for it comes from. That's perfectly fine, though. Instant #1?

I don't really understand either, but that's due more to my lack of development of the "critic" in me that would be able to point out more specific things about the song instead of just throwing out the names of the lead singer and two other female rock leads. And I certainly didn't expect it, either. Sure, "Maps" hit #1 on my chart, but their two(?) singles from Show Your Bones did next to nothing for me. (Even "Y-Control", which I thought was decent enough, narrowly missed my top 50... meaning they'd gone 0-for-the-decade post-"Maps" until now.)

And regarding the terms "high praise" and "rabid enthusiasm"... I actually tried to hold back a little bit because I knew I would get people to listen to it, and I didn't want my words to create high expectations that were bound not to be met. (I could have posted an embedded video here as well rather than a link, but the video was a homemade animation created for the song; even though it was pretty cool, I thought it would be better if the first impression of the song was audio only instead of the video.) I guess that's because I don't usually even get this excited about a song, even considering the "opinion" section of my 2 posts only totaled 2-3 lines total. I usually prefer to let my personal chart and my objective analysis of it do the talking. I wish there were a better solution here.

And yeah, it's slotted for #1 after Airborne gets done. I'm glad it came along at this time because I wasn't all too excited at the prospect at putting "Broken", "Untouched", or "Dirt Room" #1, or having Airborne tie Evanescence for the all-time weeks at #1 record.

Feb 28, 2009 5:14:49 GMT -4 a Nick O! said:

I don't hear Shirley or Gwen so much, but rather Chrissie Hynde. Also, in those breathy, repetitive short phrases, I hear someone else I can't put my finger on for the life of me. Possibly Siouxsie Sioux, I don't know; it's been a long time since I listened to their music.

And my familiarity with Siouxsie and Chrissie are next to zero, despite hearing a few Pretenders songs here and there over the years. More specifically in "Zero", I heard slightly more of a Gwen voice than a Shirley voice, but the music was definitely leaning more Garbage than No Doubt.