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You’re running down a dark alley. It’s nighttime. You’re wearing a leather jacket. Neon signs flicker behind you, their pink lights visible between buildings. You’re being chased by three or four bad guys. Very bad guys. They’re shooting at you. They’re missing, but their aim is getting better. It seems like they never need to reload. You’re getting closer and closer to the end of the alley. A dead-end. You’re running out of options. Things do not look good. Not good at all. Suddenly, Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2009) starts playing. Those opening notes blast through the city. You don’t know where the sound is coming from, but you’re energized. You’re ready to go. Your brain starts moving at a thousand miles an hour. Your adrenaline is pumping. Your fast, your strong. You will win. You approach the dark red brick of the building blocking your path and make up your mind. Without breaking a stride you take one then two steps up the wall. Planting your right foot, you push backwards flipping yourself up into the night sky. You reach out, hoping against hope and grab one of the fire escapes overhanging the alley. Your pursuers gape in amazement. You escape up the side of the building. You spend the rest of the night running along the rooftops gazing out over the city, while the song continues to play.
This is what happens you listen to Heads Will Roll. Every time. Guaranteed.
I may be bloviating a little here, but I do believe Heads Will Roll is a perfect song. A perfect bit of pop alchemy that proved Karen O is a musician/ This is in spite of its ubiquity between 2009-2011, when it seemed like every other advertisement, TV show and movie used this song when they needed a bit of extra juice. In fact, there's a very good chance that the little scene I described above really did happen and I just forgot that I saw it in a movie or something. This song was everywhere. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs had a couple of other hits, “Maps,” and “Gold Lion,” that all become somewhat famous. Their biggest crossover hit though was the A-Trak remix of “Heads Will Roll.” For some people, that’s all they know of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
If I were a better music critic, musician, or knew anything about music theory, this would be the part of the newsletter where I get into the nitty-gritty of why Heads Will Roll goes so hard. Unfortunately for you, I’m just going to have to write about the “vibes” of the song. There is one thing I want to point to as the crux of the song. The arpeggiated guitar line that sparkles and shimmers throughout the song’s three minutes and forty-one seconds of run time. That is the song’s spine, what everything else is built around. It’s bewitching, simultaneously managing to sound like it’s from the future and a fantastical past. This combined with Karen O’s at times ethereal, at times brash, vocal performance makes for a one-two punch of sonic power.
The internet loves to bash late 2000s early 2010s indie rock. It’s become a regular punchline and shorthand for those wanting to make fun of/describe a certain type of millennial. Some of that is fair. There is a certain vibe to a lot of these songs, a specific holier-than-thou refusal to have fun, to embrace the chaotic whirlwind of truly unleashed musical creativity. On top of that, movies like Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Garden State have turned these types of indie pop bands into twee bullshit through cultural osmosis. That’s true of several bands but is also tremendously unfair to a huge number of other groups
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The Yeah Yeahs Yeahs are one of those groups that has been caught up in the general malaise against groups like OK Go, San Fermin, Arctic Monkeys, Modest Mouse, Florence and the Machine, you see where I’m going with this. Some of that comparison is fair. Their name is stupid, still one of the most common complaints of that era of music. They can be a little too composed at times, favoring slower more intricate build ups versus a more in-your-face approach. But the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are more than that. Their biggest strength is their commitment to the emotion of each song. I’m not talking about the tyrannical sadness of Father John Misty or the forced joy of Matt and Kim. Rather the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have the incredible ability to create complex emotional palettes through their music. These are created not timidly, but with verve and most of all, a deep understanding of what each song is trying to do.
Heads Will Roll is the greatest of these. This song presents a wide variety of emotional states, boiled down to their base forms. The presence of so many different pieces doesn’t muddy the picture but keeps it bright and interesting. At times it’s a song of revenge, but also of regret, of chances lost, of wondering what could have been. It’s beautiful.
Okay. That’s it. Go listen to the dang song.
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