IS IS

Considering the intense volatility of their sound, New York’s art-punk trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs benefit from the compressed punch of the EP format where every note carries added weight. There’s no time to self-indulge and the band has always been at its best when surging forth with primitive soul fully exposed. Singer Karen O has grown past whatever PJ Harvey affections her earliest works supposed and she’s in complete control for the extra maelstrom of “Down Boy” where she indulges both her quieter, contemplative side and her sudden shrieks to nowhere. The band’s basic guitar / drum combo leaves little room for the extra flourish, yet guitarist Nick Zinner gets the most out of heavily distorted riffage. The new-wave strokes of “Kiss, Kiss” careen with an ebullient pop melody underneath the overdriven attack. With “Isis” the group also proves that garage rock need not lose its sex-drive come-on. Nothing wrong with a quick dose of abrasive fun.

This EP collects newly recorded songs written in 2004 between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 2003 debut Fever to Tell and their 2006 follow-up, Show Your Bones, and as such is more reminiscent of the raw danger of the group's debut than its patient follow-up.

For a group that bursts with fleeting pleasures, Yeah Yeah Yeahs doesn't inspire much patience on the Is Is EP; instead, it rewards it with frustrating hints. "Rockers To Swallow" is a reminder that the band is comfortable lurking in abstract grooves—even if the song also cycles back to the usual theatrics of Karen O…

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