It’s official: Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back with their first new material in nearly a decade, announcing their fifth studio album Cool It Down (Sept. 30, Secretly Canadian) and releasing its opening track and lead single, “Spitting off the Edge of the World,” produced by Dave Sitek and featuring Perfume Genius.
Cool It Down is the first album from Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase since 2013’s Mosquito. The eight-track LP features cover photography by Alex Prager, and is described in a press release as “an expert distillation of the band’s best gifts that impel you to move, cry, and listen closely” that “is bound to be a landmark in their catalog.”
“Spitting off the Edge of the World” finds beauty in doom, growing from a lone drum machine to a glittering synth-pop elegy about climate change’s promise of destruction. “Dark places shall be none,” Karen O promises over moody keys, with Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas replying, “She’s melting houses of gold.” Chase’s drums loom large in the choruses as Karen O laments, “Never had no chance.”
“I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiance,” the singer explains. “It’s galvanizing, and there’s hope there.”
Karen O also spoke to the band’s long layoff, the title of their new album, the video for their lead single and more in an extensive statement:
To all who have waited, our dear fans, thank you, our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed. Don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you’ve been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made. No shying away from the feels, or backing down from what’s been gripping all of us these days. So yes we’ve taken our time, happy to report when it’s ready it really does just flow out.
The record is called Cool It Down which is snagged from a lesser known Velvet Underground Song. I told Alex Prager whose photo graces our record cover that her image speaks to sweeping themes in the music and sums up how I, Karen, feel existentially in these times! But there’s always more to the story. This is how our new story begins, we present to you with heads bowed and fists in the air Spitting Off the Edge of the World featuring Perfume Genius.
A note on this video, it’s a dream collaboration with one of our favorite artists of the 21st century Cody Critcheloe who did the artwork for our first record back in 2003 and has been making visionary music videos for the last decade. The time to collaborate again came with Spitting, the shoot in Kansas City was dream-like, the dreams you have after eating something really greasy right before bed; bizarre, poetic, and intense. Perfume Genius was incredibly gracious to roll in the very cold mud as my co pilot and steal scene after scene with his surreal charm. We trusted Cody implicitly, he surpassed expectations and gave us our November Rain. YYY’s spirit is alive and well through the eyes of Cody Critcheloe. Custom Yeahs limo was largely his handiwork, fueled on love.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs will play a handful of high-profile shows and festival sets in the U.K., Spain, Australia and Quebec this summer. Come fall, they’ll perform at Riot Fest in Chicago, and at a pair of New York and Los Angeles shows, at the Forest Hills Stadium and Hollywood Bowl, respectively, alongside The Linda Lindas. A yet-to-be-announced special guest will also join the bill in NYC, while Japanese Breakfast does so in LA. Tickets are on sale now.
Check out the “Spitting off the Edge of the World” video (dir. Cody Critcheloe, aka Ssion) below, along with the details of Cool It Down and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ tour dates.
Cool It Down Tracklist:
1. Spitting off the Edge of the World feat. Perfume Genius
2. Lovebomb
3. Wolf
4. Fleez
5. Burning
6. Blacktop
7. Different Today
8. Mars
Cool It Down Art:
Yeah Yeahs Yeahs Tour Dates:
June
05 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo [Support: English Teacher]
07 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton [Support: Dry Cleaning, Anika]
08 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton [Support: Porridge Radio, Anika]
11 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound 2022
July
20 – Melbourne, Australia @ Margaret Court Arena [Support: Wet Leg]
22 – Yelgun, Australia @ Splendour in the Grass 2022
24 – Sydney, Australia @ Hordern Pavilion [Support: Wet Leg]
29 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Music and Arts Festival 2022
September
18 – Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
October
01 – New York, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium [Special Guest TBA, The Linda Linda]
06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl [Japanese Breakfast, The Linda Lindas]
