Show Your Bones (2006)

Show Your Bones is the second studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on March 28, 2006 in the US and a day earlier in the UK by Interscope Records. Produced by Squeak E. Clean and the band itself, with additional production from David Andrew Sitek, the album was recorded between July–August 2005 at Stay Gold in Brooklyn, New York City.

Supported by the singles, "Gold Lion", "Turn Into" and "Cheated Hearts", the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2007.

Background and music

In early 2005, the band decided to scrap all of the songs they had written for the record so far and re-invent their style. Karen O said, "We're not interested in making Fever to Tell Part 2. The pressure is to re-invent ourselves. We don't know how we're going to do it yet but I think it's in our best interests to try and explore other directions." Guitarist Nick Zinner added, "It seems like a necessary step and the obvious thing to do is not repeat what you've played. I was disappointed by a lot of band's second records recently over the past year or two because it sounded like B-sides from the first record."

In an interview with Blender magazine, the band said during the writing and recording that they had almost broken up, calling that time one of their "darkest" moments.

In December 2005, producer Squeak E. Clean told MTV News that the band's second album would be a concept album about lead singer Karen O's cat, to be titled Coco Beware, but this turned out to be untrue.

Spin described the sound on the album as a "more melodic" alternative rock, recalling Pixies, Belly and Siouxsie Sioux.

Recording

Show Your Bones was written by the group members in the first half of 2005 in Los Angeles, while the recording took place from July to August of 2005 in Dave Sitek's Stay Gold Studios located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Apart from Sitek, Squeak E. Clean, the brother of Karen O's boyfriend, participated in the recording. The band made considerable efforts to renew their approach to the creation of music and to distance themselves from the concept of the first studio album. According to Jim Allen of Diffuser, throughout the work on Show Your Bones, the group turned the studio sessions into a part of the creative process rather than using the studio merely as a place to capture "audio vérité arrangements".

Karen O shared that the recording "was definitely a difficult thing", adding that "with ‘Fever To Tell’ we were writing songs and then immediately playing in front of audiences and getting feedback and really developing them in front of other people. This time it was like a pressure cooker, totally cut off from any sort of influence. It was very terrifying, but it was actually really rewarding because it was doing something different for us". The vocalist also explained the meaning behind the album title: "'Show Your Bones' is what happens when you put your finger in a light socket."

Drummer Brian Chase recalled about the album that it took him some time after finishing the recording to understand "what these songs were and where they came from", describing them as "cutting edge and new, even for me as they were being recorded." He explained that "there was a lot of thought, tension and emotion, but we’ve stretched our boundaries of what we were comfortable with and what we’ve done before."

Critical reception

Show Your Bones received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 79, based on 35 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Most reviews were positive: E! Online gave the album an A− and said, "The group cuts through style in pursuit of substance, using Fever to Tell's slow-burning hit 'Maps' as a jump-off point." The Village Voice gave it a positive review and said it wasn't "the Yeahs' Room on Fire. Far from it." Los Angeles Times gave the album three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "minimalist rock with real feeling and a subversive, epic range." The A.V. Club gave it a B+ and said, "As before, the band's willingness to ground itself in human emotion sets it apart." Playlouder gave it a score of four stars out of five and said: "If 'Fever To Tell' was a scratchy post punk effort, then this is their gothic record." Alternative Press also gave it four stars out of five and called it "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." musicOMH likewise gave the album four stars out of five and called it "the sound of a band irretrievably, irresistibly and deservedly hurtling towards the big time." BBC Collective likewise gave it four stars out of five and simply said: "Short answer: it's good."