Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Fever To Tell

You don't hear much about Fever To Tell anymore. In fact, the last time I can remember talking about it to someone was the fall of '06, when a short lived relationship found me in a then-girlfriend's car with, oddly, her pet bird hanging out on her shoulder. The song 'Maps' came on the radio and she quickly turned it to something else, insisting that she couldn't stand that song because it was played too much. I tried to argue its case, saying that you couldn't hold popularity against a song if it was good, but it did get me to thinking how much 'Maps', and to a lesser extent 'Y Control', had become these generational touchstones. During the latter half of my college life, circa '04 to '06, I could swear I heard one (or both) of those songs at every party I went to.

Allow me, then, to present my case against Fever To Tell. My thesis is that it's the most overrated album in recent memory, and its reputation is built entirely on the last three songs which are all anyone remembers from it. Now, don't mistake my meaning: I don't dislike Fever To Tell. It's the kind of fun nostalgic album I can throw on while drinking and remind myself of the good times I had in college, shrieking along to the tracks. But therein lies the problem...you see, most of Fever To Tell is made up of very repetitive, simplistic, and short songs that fail to make any sort of impression. Certainly they sound cool, and have a visceral, punk rock rush to them which is fun to try to sing along to while drunk. But they aren't songs, and definitely aren't good songs. They're like sketches for songs, with only a few ideas barely held together before collapsing into the next song-ette. Short songs, and by extension, short albums aren't a bad thing, but the true meat of Fever To Tell only shows up in the last three songs.

If you disagree, try this exercise: name me one song from the album that isn't 'Maps', 'Y Control', or 'Modern Romance.'

Had to really think about it, didn't you??

You may or may not recall that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' reputation was almost entirely built on two EPs. I've only heard their first, self-titled EP, released two years before Fever To Tell, and I think it's emblematic of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as a creative unit. They work great in 20ish minute EP doses, but don't have enough good material for a full album. This isn't an entirely original criticism, I'll admit, because I remember seeing this issue brought up in some reviews at the time. Yet Fever To Tell was the New York Times' album of the year for 2003, and while opinion is ultimately subjective, it does give one pause to consider, just how goes an album that's half or mostly forgettable earn such top marks??

Well, as I keep eluding to, the last three songs on Fever To Tell are incredible. After the way-too-long 'No No No' evaporates, the unbeatable 'Maps' soon begins, with its radio signal flutter giving way to anthemic drums and guitar chording. Once you get to Karen O.'s restrained, yearning chorus, it's hard not to fall absolutely in love with the band. Then we get the "everybody on the dance floor!!" throwdown of 'Y Control', all skittery drums and that noisy keyboard/guitar slide sound that keeps popping up. The song could be the cap to a great night or a mid-evening energy boost, but either way, it's definitely one of the best songs of the decade. Finally, the plaintive comedown of 'Modern Romance', which bums us out by assuring us that love is dead...then, after some silence, a hidden track comes in and convinces us that, no, no matter how badly we've been treated, true love is real. All in all, it's a stunning conclusion, and kind of proves that if an ending is good enough people are likely to forget the stuff they didn't like from the beginning...and the middle.

What it all comes down to is that Fever To Tell is an incredibly uneven and overpraised album. Give a cursory glance to other, better albums that came out that year and it's hard to justify the love this one gets. But, as I've established, the love it gets is built almost entirely on the last three songs--which, again, are really good. And while I'm hesitant to break an album down mathematically and say "I only like 8 of the 12 songs, so it gets 4 out of 5 stars" or some such formula, that's got to be the case with Fever To Tell. As an EP it would've been a borderline masterpiece (like Young Liars by TV on the Radio), but as an album it's just average.