Must admit that your reviewer initially went on the defensive about this NYC trio, such was/ is the suffocating weight of the hype surrounding their every lipstick-smeared trace.
However, even in this fucked-up universe, the quality can still rise to the surface, and with "Pin", YEAH YEAH YEAHS slough off the hangers-on and get down to what they do best, kicking away the chocks on one of the year's most unlikely, but surefire hit singles.
Nick Zinner and Brain Chase quickly bash into a riff that's the very essence of staccato, new wave angularity and soon Karen O is breathing all manner of inspired, thinly-veiled double entendres all over the shop. Well within two minutes, it all gloriously falls to pieces, making The White Stripes supposedly low-key recording techniques sound bombastic in the process.
Good start. The single's brace of B-sides are a little more impenetrable, though, if you'll forgive the continuing sexually charged metaphors. The remix of "Rich" possesses and strange, expansive, electro backdrop, with Karen alternating between repeating the title and screaming like she's stuck in a lift with Jeffrey Archer.
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Strange, but not half as unsettling as "Mr.You're On Fire, Mr", the YYYs mucho abrasive cover of Liars' already weirdo original. Turning up the electro pulse to alarming degrees, Karen's voice here is so lo-fi and compressed it nearly shears your head off. No doubt her better half, Liars' vox man Angus Andrew is beaming with pride.
Bizarre, attention-seeking and defiantly anti-commercial, "Pin" is a day-glo triumph of its' own making. Doubting the YYYs star quality at this stage is becoming a rather futile exercise.
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