All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Q Magazine

So let any indie bands planning a trip to the keyboard shop take note: this is how it's done, with a desire to surprise and be surprised. [May 2009, p.104]

MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

Even the now-obligatory vulnerable one, where Karen tries to prove she's not only human but nice, is... well, not a cartoon, but at least a bedtime story.

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Dot Music

It seems only logical that the three of them have relied so heavily on synths to create It's Blitz--despite Zinner's natural gift for manipulating the guitar--an album that's effectively a love letter to the dancefloor.

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Spin

The result is the alternative pop album of the decade--one that imbues the Killers' "Hot Fuss" and MGMT's "Oracular Spectacular" with a remarkable emotional depth and finesse.

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musicOMH.com

That they emerge victorious is a tribute to the strength of these fine songs as well as some seriously glamourous production attitude.

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Delusions of Adequacy

Nothing much is different with their latest triumph, It’s Blitz!, a sprawling, eclectic set of dazzling new music.

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Los Angeles Times

These songs contain O's most expressive singing yet, and the tension between her vocal performances and the band's playing results in music richer in emotion than anything the trio has done since 'Maps,' its breakout hit from 2003.

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Filter

Any doubts that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a band for the ages are wiped from the face of the earth three fragile piano chimes into 'Runaway,' one of the most epic and heart-ripping mediations on loss and loneliness ever. [Sprin 2009, p.91]

Lost At Sea

If this is the band's "Parallel Lines," they've brought tunes worth comparing.

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Entertainment Weekly

Subbing out an instrument and switching up the tempos that way is a fairly radical change. Still, the result feels unexpectedly familiar.

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Pitchfork

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs still create great, compelling pop-rock, largely because of the way the songs themselves are organized, with conventional verse-chorus structures repeatedly eschewed in favor of detours, miniature grooves, and lengthy asides that produce the sensation of a band and a singer impulsively following their own emotional whims.

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Blender

It’s Blitz! is the sound of a band reborn with new momentum, and on an album that requires dancing, the message is clear: It doesn’t matter where you came from. Just keep moving.

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Rolling Stone

The big news, though, isn't YYY's groovier sound--it's the heat they radiate.

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NOW Magazine

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs haven’t changed as much as they’d like us to believe. They still write great pop rock songs.

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Uncut

Despite its obvious debt to the ’80s and its (appreciated) nods to the trio’s own past, it’s their most modern, innovative record yet.

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Mojo

It's Blitz! succeeds because YYYs have managed to mix the human and the electronic, the emotional and the artsy, the fashion-forward and the oddly retro. [May 2009, p.94]

Under The Radar

This act continues to create work that is consistently worth consideration. [Spring 2009, p.75]

No Ripcord

It is precisely due to the band’s finesse that It’s Blitz! is so refreshing, despite being an old sound wrapped in glitter veneer.

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Hot Press

NYC art-rockers go in for some ch-ch-changes on excellent third album.

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Prefix Magazine

It’s Blitz is representative of Yeah Yeah Yeahs tightening as an unit and delivering their best album to date.

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Observer Music Monthly

Their third album offers an advance on the ecstatic dance punk of 2003 debut "Fever to Tell" and beefy rock of 2006's "Gold Lion," boldly pushing synths centre stage while sacrificing none of their vitality.

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Slant Magazine

Sure, it's easy to lament how fangless they sound here, with just hints of the skuzzy basement ferocity that has made Fever to Tell one of the decade's most enduring records. But the finesse they display here, on their most mature and stylistically coherent record, may ultimately serve them even better.

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Drowned In Sound

It's Blitz reveals just how much the trio have grown and how well they know exactly the strange angular planet that their music inhabits.

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The Guardian

Karen O's froideur carries even lesser songs, such as Skeletons' formulaic new wave, and imbues the ballad Little Shadow with the majesty of an ice queen. Great stuff.

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New Musical Express

It’s no revolution, but It’s Blitz!’s heartfelt love letter to the transcendent possibilities of the dancefloor is an unexpectedly emphatic reassertion of why Yeah Yeah Yeahs are one of the most exciting bands of this decade.

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PopMatters

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as you knew them, are dead. Just don’t be surprised if you like new version a little more.

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The New York Times

Fuller backdrops don’t inhibit Karen O at all. She still sounds unguarded and madcap, sometimes girlishly vulnerable, sometimes indomitable.

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All Music Guide

Between its violently happy songs and its softer ones, It's Blitz! ends up being some of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' most balanced and cohesive music.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

The main problem with It’s Blitz! is that the band’s kind of retreat to kicky electroclash feels a little late to the party. Too many other musicians have gone to this particular well over the past half-decade, and few of them had a Karen O at their disposal. Still, these synth-driven pop songs aren’t really much different from Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ guitar-driven ones.

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Paste Magazine

The trio hasn’t quite put together an album of complete heart-stoppers just yet, but Blitz charts them in the right direction.

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Sputnikmusic

It's Blitz will probably date badly and, despite clearly being better than "Fever To Tell," it probably won't be remembered by as many people, or as fondly by those people. Regardless, it IS a great album, and one that's come completely out of leftfield as far as its style and its depth goes.

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Dusted Magazine

It’s Blitz isn’t FTT, and may not be remembered as highly (particularly by those who never give it a chance), but it is a logical progression.

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cokemachineglow

Most of that sonic rage is in absentia on It’s Blitz!, which is part OK electro dance record and part atmospheric boredom courtesy of producer nerd David Sitek, who, it’s becoming increasingly clear, saves all of his best ideas for his main squeeze TV On the Radio.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

From most bands, half of a great record would be an incredible accomplishment, but we’ve heard so much better from them.

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Boston Globe

After 10 songs, the digital version It's Blitz! is padded out with four acoustic renditions of songs on the album. But even with an acoustic guitar at the forefront and Karen O harmonizing with string sections and pianos, the songs--and, crucially, the melodies - still don't convey much.

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Austin Chronicle

Six years later, the New York trio's third LP, It's Blitz!, is only as subversive as its cover image.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 65 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brad J. gave it a10:
It's Blitz is my 2009 CD of the year. It seems like the people that panned this CD gave it a low rating because it's not a rehashed Fever to Tell. Well, thats because Karen O. isn't 23 anymore. I respect the YYYs for not being complacent and trying to do something different.

Dusan Z. gave it a10:
This splendoriferous gem is 2009's finest! You'll probably find yourself wanting to 'dance, dance, dance till you're dead'.

Sean D gave it a10:
A highly solid, exciting and different effort for this solid, exciting and different trio.

Richie F. gave it a10:
The best album of 2009. period. It's Blitz, It's Amazing! Because of this album, I am a diehard fan of the wonderful Yeah Yeah Yeahs, now. They show me why I love music so much! Thank you Karen, Brian, and Nick.

Green J gave it a10:
I've really gotten to liking the YYYs more with each album... Some will put it down and call it "overproduced," but that is just a narrow and ignorant stance on an extremely polished, lovingly crafted album. The band just keeps getting better... Their live performances are spectacular, and their music is lyrically beautiful. I can't wait to see what they do next.

Jen C gave it a9:
Sure I miss Nick Zinner's guitars. I don't even typically like the dance music that influenced this album. But I can't pretend that I don't think this is the YYY's best album. And there's not an album I've listened to more this year so far. "Skeletons" is one of the most beautiful tracks ever. Well done NYC art poseurs...well done. Lydia Lunch can go F herself.

Toby H gave it a9:
Brilliant from start to finish- especially Heads Will Roll, Soft Shock and Dragon Queen. Only Dull Life lets it down.

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