Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ album ‘It’s Blitz‘ remains one of my favourite albums of recent years. The band’s change from what you might call traditional indie to a synth lead riot of tracks like Heads Will Roll was a joy to the ears and the whole thing still sounds fresh as a daisy now. The prospect of a solo album from lead singer Karen O is then an intriguing thing. Will she go on full on electro or will we go back to the more guitar based sound of Yeah Yeah Yeahs debut?
Well, the answer is neither. Crush Songs is a sparse, lo-fi album, constructed mainly from Karen O’s vocals and acoustic guitar and it really works. The songs, originally recorded in 2006 and 2007, are all fairly short and lyrically they are confessional, almost distressed pieces, focusing in places on those moments where you feel a relationship is out of control and doomed and in others, those times when you know you’re in love but the person you’re in love with doesn’t know it. The fragile nature of tracks like ‘Body’ and ‘Rapt’ perfectly demonstrate these feelings and both show off the mood of the album perfectly
At times, you almost feel voyeuristic listening to this given the intensely personal feel of the songs but ultimately, we’ve all felt emotions like those sung of here. An album that is well worth checking out.
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