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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Show Your Bones
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 69 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Interscope
Release Date: 28 March 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
The New York trio's short but highly anticipated sophomore set--which features a mellower, more polished sound--was produced by Squeak E Clean and mixed by Alan Moulder.
Also By This Artist: Fever To Tell Is Is [EP] It's Blitz Machine [EP] Yeah Yeah Yeahs [EP]
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: The Seconds: Kratitude
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
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...
Observer Music Monthly
Thankfully, Bones is neither a heated-up knock-off of Fever To Tell nor a fan-alienating abandonment of their signature sound. It is instead, a supremely confident 12-song cut that has a remarkable weightiness.
Read Full Review >Urb
The best thing about the second Yeah Yeah Yeahs album is the fact that it defies expectations, yet seems like the perfectly logical next step for such an adventurous band. [Apr 2006, p.81]
E! Online
The group cuts through style in pursuit of substance, using Fever to Tell's slow-burning hit "Maps" as a jump-off point.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Show Your Bones picks up where "Maps" left off, with the trio finding a middle ground between self-conscious primitivism and refined pop. [31 Mar 2006, p.60]
Village Voice
No, local slump-spotters, this isn't the Yeahs' Room on Fire. Far from it.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
This is minimalist rock with real feeling and a subversive, epic range. [4 Mar 2006]
cokemachineglow
With Show Your Bones, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have proven themselves worthy of the hype, and, more importantly, the excitement caused by an undeniably fantastic record.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
As before, the band's willingness to ground itself in human emotion sets it apart.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
The few tracks on Show Your Bones that sound like they might have fit on Fever to Tell clearly constitute the new album’s weaker links.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
This album is, above all, a textural triumph, a quantum bounce from the brittle jitter and insect-chatter fuzz of the band's 2001 Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP and 2003's full-length Fever to Tell. It's as if the Velvet Underground had gone from the black-crusted minimalism of their first album right to the pop bloom of their fourth, Loaded.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
If 'Fever To Tell' was a scratchy post punk effort, then this is their gothic record.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
There's no 'difficult second album' syndrome here - Show Your Bones is the sound of a bang irretrievably, irresistibly and deservedly hurtling towards the big time.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Though they've shed the cheap - but undeniably fun - Day-Glo immediacy of 'Fever...', it's been replaced by a range of expressions that most artists will only stumble upon by their fifth release.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
It may not be the album many critics and fans were expecting from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but it's undeniably the right record for them at the right time, a shrewd display of awareness of both craft and, more importantly, of self too often lacking in modern rock.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
Show Your Bones is the sort of second album that, rather than being a sophomore slump, makes you anxiously wonder what albums three, four and five will sound like. [May 2006, p.176]
Q Magazine
Against the odds, the band have managed to keep things small and strange, and learned a few thrilling new tricks along the way. [Apr 2006, p.110]
Uncut
It's only when they change pace on "Cheated Hearts" and the equally poignant "Dudley"... that Bones makes its mark as a worthy successor to Fever. [Apr 2006, p.98]
ShakingThrough.net
A more shaded, musically expressive version of the continuing story of [Karen] O.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
The album is a bit top-heavy... But Show Your Bones is nonetheless rewarding. [#13, p.89]
Mojo
It's far from disappointing. [Apr 2006, p.106]
Dot Music
It's flawed, but applause for adding vulnerability to their game plan, at the very least.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
Show Your Bones is much more accessible than its predecessor, but there isn't really a "Maps" to serve as a gateway.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
On Show Your Bones the Yeah Yeah Yeahs occupy only one corner of the territory they claimed on Fever, walking confidently in their own footsteps but without claiming any new ground.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
"Show Your Bones" doesn't confide much, but it's a picture of a band that's not quite sure what to do next. [27 Mar 2006]
Blender
They're after something different here--it's just not as good as what they've left behind. [Apr 2006, p.110]
Billboard
Much of the material on the quirky "Show Your Bones" is more intimate and, at times, tentative. [1 Apr 2006]
NOW Magazine
It's time to move some units, so quirky's out and tunefulness is in.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Unfortunately, though, too much of Show Your Bones just isn't that interesting, even if it was born from genuine heartache instead of sass and attitude.
Read Full Review >Drawer B
It sounds overcooked, over-thought, and overly ambitious, but such growing pains are preferable to pandering.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
Everything I loved about Fever... is minimized on this follow-up, replaced by a more temperate jangle. [Jun/Jul 2006, p.129]
Austin Chronicle
Gone is the glitzy art-punk, spastic freak-out, and unfathomable screaming. Here now instead is simple melody, nasal singing, and familiar songs, which begs the question: Y Control?
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Alas, despite finding some hooks worth pilfering, the band are still struggling to raise their game beyond White Stripes-goth-lite.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 69 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Fabio L gave it a10:
A great album all around. Worlds different than Fever to Tell... still a masterpiece.
Nick E gave it a6:
I give this somewhere between a 6 and a 7. The sound is definitely more polished and the songs are more tamely written than most everything on "Fever to Tell". Which isn't to say that they're bad - some tracks, particularly the first few, are outstanding. But a lot of the really poppy flourishes fall flat. By the end of this album I felt like it could have been the score for the movie "Reality Bites" had it come out a dozen years earlier. And I don't mean that as a compliment.
Reuben F gave it an8:
For a band with a Riot Grrl influence, this album is remarkably polished in sound. A number of songs rate among the best of 2006, including 'Turn Into', 'Cheated Hearts', 'Honeybear' and 'Gold Lion'. Karen O made quite an impression down under in her live performances in 2003 ;-)
Pedro O gave it a10:
Siouxsie must love this. I do.
Amurabi M gave it an8:
It´s clear than "Show Your Bones" shows...some guts. Brave, coraegous and risked, this album is just a continuation of the wonderful job of previous album. But, "Show..." is more than that. It seems than the band are trylng not just show its bones but they are trying to do something more affordable with them. This is a personal album for The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Looks like a change, musically and personally. Ambitious, powerful and conscious that they are the avant garde (for the failure of The Strokes) of alternative music right now. They are not trying to replicate its first album, au contraire, they are trying to redefine its sound. A sound than its closer to a dance punk music than art punk. Producer seems very important here. The producer makes them sound bigger, louder and clearer. They have fantastic songs: "Gold Lion", "Way Out" and "Fancy" (with some keyboards inside). But the glorious, "Cheated Hearts", "Dudley" and, above all, "Turn Into", elevates to the band to the status of great roc´k´n´roll bands. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs made a fantastic album, but the real brain in this is the guitar player Nick Zinner, a guy who plays monstruous riffs and textures similar to My Bloody Valentine, with the same skills. Karen O looks changed, but her voice is just the same. This album looks alike a couple dancing in its wedding, savage, sensual but overall, exquisitely as the whole album is playing. This is a magnificent album, a triumph to this band previousily called: "The Nerd, The Goth and The Whore".
Betty gave it a5:
Very sour sophomore album. Trying too hard to fit with other things that are popular right now. Karen may as well join Tegan and Sara, she sounds enough like them now.
Jahar gave it an8:
Much more polished and listener friendly than "Fever to Tell."
