Day 258: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell

The UK has a heatwave at the moment, so I’ve spent my day flirting with heat stroke – seven hours in a hot car with very limited AC was in hindsight perhaps a bit much. Before the effects of that fully kicked in, I went for a nice, summery album: Fever to Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Album cover courtesy of Interscope Records

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs was formed in 2000 in New York by singer Karen O, guitarist and keyboard player Nick Zinner and drummer and percussionist Brian Chase. After they made a name for themselves with their self-released EP, they fended off offers from major record labels and self-funded the recording of their debut album. They asked Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio to produce the album because they say he was the only one they knew who could do it. It paid off, as Fever to Tell was met with pretty much universal acclaim and it earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album.

I thought this was a good choice for a summery drive for some reason, it’s not your more traditional summer albums but it works. The grimy lo-fi sound is evergreen and Karen O is up there as one of the coolest rock front-women of all time. It’s a suitably rated album of the early 2000s New York rock scene, which the kids these days are apparently calling indie sleaze. When did that start happening? That’s the TikTok children’s nonsense, I reject the term.

Due to the aforementioned issues I don’t have too much to say today, I think the heat melted my brain. Album good. 8.5/10.