Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It’s natural for most bands to tinker with the sound that made them popular until they’re virtually unrecognizable to all but their most hardcore fans. Be it guilt over hitting it big or just a series of curious tweaks, it’s usually crass and contrived. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, however, have gone from a band that washed ashore during the Strokes craze of the early ’00s with Fever To Tell’s art-yelps and muscular guitar lines (remember when that seemed unavoidable?) to twisting psych-out insectoid beats, warbled guitars, and itchy synths on 2009’s It’s Blitz!. Yet YYYs’ constants amid all their changes this decade—besides their bombastic ubiquity—are unmistakable melody and Karen O’s powerful vocals.

Updated 01/14/2010