Album Review: It's Blitz - Yeah Yeah Yeah's

***
I've been listening to this album for a while now, and although I appreciate it, I'm still not quite sure what all the fuss is about. 'Q' Magazine gave it the dreaded 5 stars (something of a rubber stamp for overrated tosh) yet other furnishers of music review have been similarly enamoured.

'Zero' is an infectious enough slice of glitter ball sparkle, calling all to "shake a ladder to the sun" and is a worthy first single. Other moments of pop wizardry include the lilting 'Hysteric' and the possessive 'Runaway' but is this really enough to induce such rave reviews?

Perhaps my lack of inspiration is the result of seeing another 'indie' band losing the guitars and opening up the trunk labelled "80's synthesisers for post millennial reinvention".

I am a fan of the new penchant for electronica, it feels in many ways like we've finally broken free of the Britpop shadow that's so imprisoned our critical outlook for the best part of a decade. Even the era of the NME coined 'New Rock Revolution' was in many ways just the inevitable reaction to Britpops overblown pomp and bombast.

I think, my issue with 'It's Blitz' is that, well....it actually all seems very safe. Where should the line between dance enthused pop sensibilities and MOR blandness be drawn I ask? The Noisettes, another band that I initially admired, have recently crossed that imaginary line, deciding to drop their interesting melting pot of punk and soul in favour of appealing to the 'masses'.

To paraphrase a politician, let me make it quite clear, I've got nothing against pop music. Some of my best friends like pop music. Undoubtedly however, something has been lost during this intensive conversion.

It's probably not the case for Karen O and Co., I just don't find I'm moved by the 'Mull of Kintyre' leanings found on 'Skeletons' or the sigh inducing blandness of 'Soft Shock'. They're...well, just not charming. That's what is so infuriating.

These songs somehow seem stripped of charisma, of quirk, of warmth. 'Dull Life' and 'Dragon Queen' hit all the right notes but still leave me shrugging my shoulders - there can't be anything worse than that. To despise an album completely is at least evidence of a reaction. Here, I just feel lukewarm and that's unforgivable.