I have to admit, I’ve been a Yeah Yeah Yeahs fanatic for years now. When I first heard the band, front woman Karen O was yelping like an art-punk superstar over energetic and barely restrained rock tracks that were threatening to blow up. There was a nutty, almost nervous, energy that made songs like Tick and Bang click together in just the right way.

Yet there’s always been a softer, more reflective side to the YYYs. It was subtly hinted at in 2002’s Art Star where Karen O crooned the infamous ‘It’s our year to be hated’ before being fully realised in the slow dirge Modern Romance. A repetitious piece that capped off their debut LP Fever To Tell.

I’ve been waiting a while now for the YYYs to come out with something that would expand on the sound they’d been hinting at with Modern Romance and with the release of It’s Blitz!, it seems like that day has finally arrived.

It’s Blitz! is a gamble, with Nick Zinner switching his trademark guitar for a collection of synths and keyboards. The YYYs have even surrounded themselves with like-minded collaborators including Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio and Greg Kurtsin of The Bird and The Bee. The result is an album that bounces from the upbeat energetic dance of Zero to the synthed out and ambient Skeletons. It’s bi-polar, but it works.

Skeletons has no chorus. It slowly trickles on as Karen O rambles about skeletons, love and god knows what else. Brian Chase’s drumming creates the backbone of the track, starting out softly and nearly being drowned out by an assortment of bubbly drum machines that hum alongside him. As the song reaches its climax, Karen O’s vocals fade out and Chase’s drumming picks up steam, before finally being overcome by the sea of keyboards.

It’s a track that should be a failure and could easily be defined as a slow mess that warbles about for five minutes before finally fading. Yet for me, it feels like the emotive hook of the entire album. Skeletons is the song that Modern Romance never was. Fully realized, fleshed out and satisfying.

LISTEN WITH:TV on the Radio – Modern Romance (New Health Rock EP, 2004)

An ingenious cover where TV On The Radio manage to break down the YYYs original and transform it into stuttering barbershop anthem.

Low – Murderer (From the Murderer vinyl EP 2003, not the album version from drums and guns)

Another song that builds, yet never quite reaches its peak. Tension slowly rises throughout this short piece which is filled with complex lyrics that ooze religious symbolism. It’s the height of Low’s career.

High Places – From stardust to Sentience (High Places, 2008)

Lo-fi with an almost tropical vibe, Mary Pearson’s vocals get lost in the layers of samples, beats and tropical drums that bounce about this summery, soft song. A highlight from this duo’s 2008 debut LP.

It’s Blitz is out now on digital release. Physical copies of It’s Blitz, featuring an acoustic rendition of Skeletons, hit stores on April 10.

You can hear skeletons on Flip.The.Tape, Friday, 2pm-4pm on Joy 94.9fm Melbourne.