Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back. They’ve announced their new album Cool It Down with a video for the new song “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” featuring Perfume Genius. The album is due out September 30 via Secretly Canadian; the Dave Sitek–produced single marks Yeah Yeah Yeahs debut for the label and their first piece of original music since 2013’s Mosquito. Watch the Cody Critcheloe–directed video for “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” below.
Cool It Down shares a title with a song from the Velvet Underground’s 1970 album Loaded. In a statement, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O said: “To all who have waited, our dear fans, thank you, our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed. Don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you've been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made. No shying away from the feels, or backing down from what’s been gripping all of us these days. So yes we’ve taken our time, happy to report when it’s ready it really does just flow out.”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs first announced “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” last week. The single and its corresponding music video were initially previewed at Brooklyn’s Main Drag Music on May 28. It then played inside the store all weekend.
The band recently announced a handful of upcoming shows. Yeah Yeah Yeahs will play a number of UK concerts this month. Their UK dates will feature a variety of supporting artists, including English Teacher, Dry Cleaning, Anika, and Porridge Radio. The band will also perform at a string of dates in Barcelona, Melbourne, Sydney, Montreal, New York, and Los Angeles.
After COVID-19-related concert cancellations in 2020, Yeah Yeah Yeahs shared a video of a remote performance of “Phenomena” from their 2006 LP Show Your Bones. Karen O sang from a darkened closet while Nick Zinner played guitar on a laptop in front of her. Back in 2018, Yeah Yeah Yeahs shared a cover of Big Star’s “Thirteen.” In June of that year, they headlined New York’s Governors Ball Music Festival.
The band also issued a mysterious six-minute recording titled “Phone Jam” that features recordings of voicemails left for Karen O, played over a noisy background music. Yeah Yeah yeahs announced the deluxe reissue of their 2003 debut Fever to Tell the following day. The box set included B-sides, unheard demos, and more.
Revisit Pitchfork’s interview with the band surrounding the release of Mosquito.
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Cool It Down:
01 Spitting Off the Edge of the World [ft. Perfume Genius]
02 Lovebomb
03 Wolf
04 Fleez
05 Burning
06 Blacktop
07 Different Today
08 Mars
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed at Sound on Sound Festival in 2017. The band was on the festival’s initial lineup, but the event was canceled.
