Yeah Yeah Yeahs' impending Isis EP is a bit of an odd case. The five included songs are all longtime live staples that have been in the band's arsenal from well before the recording of last year's Show Your Bones. Widespread fan favorites due to prominent placement in the Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow DVD, they somehow failed to make the cut for a proper release until now. So instead a glimpse into what the band might sound like come LP number three (foreshadowing has long been a prize function of the EP format), we get a time capsule of what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs did sound like about three years ago. The slight letdown with Show Your Bones's occasionally pensive tracklist had much to do with the glaring omission of these fun, uptempo bangers. I suppose it's better late than never.
Karen O's lyrics throughout are mainly non-sensical, succeeding for their sound and tone but not providing any deep layers of meaning to be unpacked. It's Nick Zinner and Brian Chase who dominate. Zinner breaks out another entry from his seemingly inexhaustible supply of big nagging guitar hooks, then falls back into nervously strangled notes framing the main verse-chorus-verse. During these shifts into this anxious build up mode, Chase keeps things moving steadily ahead. Around two minutes and forty-five seconds, a glam stomp emerges as a second rhythmic entity, pulling the song even further into the land of the fist pump. Karen O's along-for-the-ride status here is perhaps a concession to her mates, an apology for chewing the scenery in their last go round? Speculation into interpersonal band dynamics be damned. Anyone want to party like it's 2004?