Never go back they say. Never are work with children or animals they say. Never eat yellow snow they say. Although, if we had to pick one for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to take into the recording studio, the first has to be the best option.
Because this is where it started. Five track EP's-ville. Six years after they first trampled into our collective consciousness screaming about agencies in Cologne, galleries in New York and AAAARRRRTTT!! STAAAARRRRSSSS!! Of course it's hardly the same. The most affirmative band in the world are now genuine, bona-fide, electrified megastars.
Is Is is a collection of previously unreleased material; songs recorded whilst touring first album Fever To Tell but presumably disregarded as not good enough for the second record, now re-packaged for our listening delectation. So who wants first go with the cynicism?
You can partially woah your cynical steeds though, because at least two of the tracks here are pretty handy. Down Boy isn't, sadly, a cover of the Holly Valance 'classic', but sounds like Deja Vu (yes, yes) working the streets of a neon-drowned metropolis with clamps on its nipples and a plaintive air in its heart, while Kiss Kiss isn't, sadly, a cover of the Holly Valance 'uber-classic', but does come off just like what you'd always imagined the YYYs covering Song 2 would be like. Woo, and indeed Hoo.
Still, there's little on here which really recaptures the violent, noisy energy of that debut EP. There's nothing about it that will drive you to tears, but but there's nothing particularly spectacular about it either. Is Is is just ok ok.
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