It's Blitz! is the third studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by American indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring...

, released March 9, 2009 on Interscope Records

Interscope Records

Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...

. It was originally set for release on April 13, 2009, however after being leaked

Internet leak

An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...

 to the internet on February 22, the release date was pushed forward to March 9 for the digital version and March 31 for the physical version. The rest of the world release date was on April 6, 2009. The first single "Zero

Zero (Yeah Yeah Yeahs song)

"Zero" is the first single released by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from their third album, It's Blitz!, on February 24, 2009.On March 11, 2009, Zero was added to BBC Radio 1's 'C Playlist' and then to their 'B Playlist', but has since dropped off....

" was released on February 24, 2009. The album was produced by Nick Launay

Nick Launay

Nick Launay is an English record producer and recording engineer. He is currently one of the most sought after producers in the world due to his current success with recent albums by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds...

 (Nick Cave

Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...

, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

, PiL

Public Image Ltd.

Public Image Ltd are an English post-punk band formed by vocalist John Lydon , guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble, with frequent subsequent personnel changes. Lydon is the sole constant member of the band....

), along with TV on the Radio

TV on the Radio

TV on the Radio is an American art rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York, whose music spans numerous diverse genres, from post-punk to electro and free jazz to soul music....

's Dave Sitek.

The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...

 on December 2, 2009.

Recording

According to Nick Launay, one of the two producers, the recording of the album was unusual for being largely written and created in the studio at a time when record labels have cut back considerably on production budgets. The few songs the band did take along to the first sessions were later altered significantly. Launay described a typical session as follows:

"Brian [Chase] would play lots of different drumbeats and we'd record it, chop it up and then make a groove loop out of it. Nick (Zinner) would then just jam to it, and we'd come up with an interesting rhythm part. Karen [O] would listen to that and come up with a vocal melody and then suddenly everything would fall into place."

The album sessions took place over several months in 2008, during which time there were numerous breaks "to get inspired".

Critical reaction

The album has been very well received by critics, having a weighted average rating of 82/100 (Universal acclaim), according to Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, based on 36 reviews. The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

s Caroline Sullivan gave it 4 out of 5 stars and commended the band's more dance-oriented sound, writing "the band's glittery new disco sound suits them very well. It's all cool, brittle catchiness, with a debt owed to Eat to the Beat-era Blondie

Blondie (band)

Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...

". Emily Mackay of NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

gave the album an 8/10 rating and wrote that "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", while Spin

Spin (magazine)

Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

s Charles Aaron said that it is "the alternative pop album of the decade—one that imbues The Killers' Hot Fuss

Hot Fuss

Hot Fuss is the debut studio album by Las Vegas based American rock band The Killers, released on June 7, 2004 in the United Kingdom and on June 15, 2004 in the United States.-Background:...

and MGMT

MGMT

MGMT is an American alternative rock band founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson and Will Berman, joined the core band in the studio...

's Oracular Spectacular

Oracular Spectacular

Oracular Spectacular is the first major label studio album by American psychedelic rock band MGMT, released digitally October 2, 2007 on Columbia Records, available in CD & LP formats from January 22, 2008 by Red Ink Records. The album, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide, was nominated...

with a remarkable emotional depth and finesse". Later that year, Spin would place the album second on their best albums of 2009 list. Meanwhile, in a track-by-track preview

PREview

PREview is a requirements method which focuses on the early stage of Requirements Engineering: discovering and documenting requirements. PREview uses a Viewpoint-Oriented Approach to enable the conversion of top-level goals into requirements and constraints...

 of the album, The Fly

The Fly (magazine)

The Fly is a free music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. The magazine is published by the HMV owned MAMA Group.The magazine started as a listings leaflet in Camden, north London, for the Barfly music venue on Chalk Farm Road...

said that It's Blitz! is "an amazing return for Yeah Yeah Yeahs... an instant classic", later giving the album a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

The BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 called the album "a triumphant return for New York's finest". Clash

Clash (magazine)

Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....

commented that the trio had achieved growth without distancing themselves from what made their name: "The album proves that they can provide epic music with personal themes, that YYYs can expand without losing what made us fall for them in the first place". Jon Pareles

Jon Pareles

Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...

 of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

wrote that the band "grapple with separation and need, using dance beats to suggest the compulsive pleasure seeking that tries to drown out loneliness", and he commended their musical direction, stating "The band is echoing the evolution of postpunk, from dogmatic austerity to technologically assisted". However, Tiny Mix Tapes

Tiny Mix Tapes

Tiny Mix Tapes is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, as well as its mix tapes generator.-History:Originally called Tiny Mixtapes Gone to Heaven and...

 commented, "From most bands, half of a great record would be an incredible accomplishment, but we’ve heard so much better from them" and awarded the album 2.5/5. Nick Butler of Sputnikmusic

Sputnikmusic

Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites...

, while praising the album with an overall score of 3.5/5, summarized the album will "probably date badly and, despite clearly being better than Fever to Tell

Fever to Tell

Fever to Tell is the debut album by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 29, 2003, through Interscope. It was produced by David Andrew Sitek and mixed by Alan Moulder....

, it probably won't be remembered by as many people, or as fondly by those people". Uncut

UNCUT (magazine)

Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...

s April Long gave it 4 out of 5 stars and praised its "spirit of experimentation", stating "What unifies them is a warm romanticism that runs throughout, edging out Karen’s blatant eroticism of yore – even though there are more come-downs than come-ons, every song seems to glow from within".

Accolades

It's Blitz! was ranked as the third best album of the year 2009 by NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

and second best by Spin

Spin (magazine)

Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

. Both magazines also listed the song "Zero" as the best of the year.

Rhapsody

Rhapsody (online music service)

Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...

 called it the 12th best album of 2009.

Track listing

All tracks written by Brian Chase

Brian Chase

Brian Chase is an American drummer playing in the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He was ranked at #50 in Gigwise's list of The Greatest Drummers of All Time. He plays drums with traditional grip.-Early life:...

, Karen O

Karen O

Karen Lee Orzolek , better known by her stage name Karen O, is the vocalist for New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.-Early life:...

rzolek and Nick Zinner

Nick Zinner

Nicholas Joseph Zinner is the guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He is known for his "unmistakable" wild hair, skinny physique, and pale appearance...

Personnel

• Karen O
  Karen O
  Karen Lee Orzolek , better known by her stage name Karen O, is the vocalist for New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.-Early life:...
  
   – lead vocals
• Nick Zinner
  Nick Zinner
  Nicholas Joseph Zinner is the guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He is known for his "unmistakable" wild hair, skinny physique, and pale appearance...
  
   – guitar, keyboards, bass, drum machine
• Brian Chase
  Brian Chase
  Brian Chase is an American drummer playing in the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He was ranked at #50 in Gigwise's list of The Greatest Drummers of All Time. He plays drums with traditional grip.-Early life:...
  
   – drums, cymbals, percussion

Charts

Chart (2009)	Peak position	Sales
Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	8	40,000+
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	9	100,000+
Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...	10
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	22	200,000+
New Zealand Albums Chart	22
Canadian Hot 100	18
Belgian (Flanders Flanders Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp... )	23
Danish Albums Chart	40
Mexican Albums Chart	56
Norwegian Albums Chart	12
Austrian Albums Chart	61
German Albums Chart	71
Swiss Albums Chart	85
French Albums Chart	160