The cover to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ forthcoming new album “Mosquito” looks like “Paranorman” mixed with a Garbage Pail Kids reboot. The effort was produced and engineered by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek and Nick Launay (YYYs, Arcade Fire, Nick Cave). The song teaser they posted sounds like the Black Angels. Karen O said that fans will hear “roots reggae and minimalist psychedelia influences” in the effort.
Well, this should be interesting.
The New York band confirmed the arrival of a new album this spring today. “Mosquito” flies onto shelves on April 16 via Interscope, with an abomination of cover art so brutal, I kinda love it.
In a press release, frontwoman Karen O (who now dons a blonde coif) describes the set as one would tell a drunk patron at a bar: “We took a more playful, lo-fi approach to songwriting. Much of the music was demoed in our little basement studio in Manhattan with drum machines, a sh*tty sample keyboard and tons of delay – which we called the soup… I think this record has more moodier and tripped-out songs than you’ve ever heard from us. This is a feel good, food for the soul, chicken soup for the ears Yeah Yeah Yeahs record – which doesn’t mean easy listening – it means kind of raw, kind of chaotic, kind of dreamy… Very us.”
The group tore open a glimpse into the recording process with a blurry video performance of an untitled song. The audio isn’t top notch. It sounds psych-paranoid. Murphy produced one track for “Mosquito,” and it will feature Dr. Octogon, aka Kool Keith.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs — rounded out by Nick Zinner and Brian Chase — performed a couple of new tracks during a show in Pomona, Calif., over the weekend, and you can hear those below, too.