Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!

When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first two singles ("Zero," "Heads Will Roll") from It's Blitz! dropped in February, critical eyebrows rose dubiously at the possible electronica-fication of a band whose garage-rocker identity has solidly defined two albums and two EPs. Although the YYYs have never matched the scorching intensity of debut Fever to Tell, which put them on the map in 2003, they have continued to evolve — incredibly — without a misstep. Much of It's Blitz! is as danceable as Saturday Night Fever, minus the kitsch. If Studio 54 needed a theme song, Karen O's high-pitched chorus ("How are you not going to get high, high?") on "Dragon Queen" would have worked. The album's more pensive moments ("Hysteric," "Skeletons," "Little Shadow") become exquisite in the deluxe edition's acoustic tracks — the trio's songwriting sustains the heavier production, but the songs shine on their own in the stripped-down versions. Depending on how you look at it, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs adding a bouncy layer to their up-tempo songs, and getting away with it, is either astonishing or inevitable.