Yeah Yeah Yeahs (often mistitled as Master) is the debut extended play (EP) by the American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. After forming in 2000 and building a reputation with their live shows, Yeah Yeah Yeahs recorded and produced the EP with Jerry Teel, a member of Boss Hog. It is a garage rock record featuring the band's early punk rock influences. It was self-released on July 9, 2001, and reissued in April 2002 by Touch and Go and Wichita in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs was received positively by critics and ranked by NME as the second best single of 2002. It received little attention upon release but became a sleeper hit after its reissue, topping the UK Indie Chart and exceeding sales of 71,000 units in the United States by the end of the decade. In 2024, Paste ranked it among the greatest EPs ever made.
Background and recording
In 2000, singer/songwriter Karen Orzolek—later becoming known as Karen O—and guitarist Nick Zinner founded the acoustic duo Unitard. Later that year, they changed their name to Yeah Yeah Yeahs and shifted to a "trashy, punky, [and] grimy" sound inspired by their observations of the contemporary Ohio music scene.[1][2] In September 2000, they added drummer Brian Chase to the lineup and played their first show as an opening act for the White Stripes.[3][4]
By late 2001, Yeah Yeah Yeahs gained a following for their live shows.[5][6] Around this time, they enlisted Jerry Teel, a former guitarist for the punk rock band Boss Hog, to co-produce their debut EP.[7] They recorded it at the short-lived Funhouse Recording Studio with Teel, while Chuck Scott mastered it at Soundoptik in New York City.[8] Although it is self-titled, the EP is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Master due to the necklace Karen O wears on the cover.[7]
The opening track, "Bang", is about Karen O's sexual dissatisfaction with an ex-boyfriend,[15] emphasized by the repeated lyric "As a fuck, son, you sucked!"[7] Themes of sex and masturbation are further developed in "Mystery Girl", co-written by the band and Jack Martin.[5] "Art Star" satirizes jet-set culture and features a spoken word introduction and screaming vocals, elements that distinguish it from the band's later releases.[16] "Miles Away" was described as the record's most "ferocious" and "grinding garage" song.[17][9] The closing track, "Our Time", is an inspirational anthem about perseverance,[11][18] which later came to inspire New Yorkers after the September 11 attacks.[18][19]
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, Yeah Yeah Yeahs received an average score of 73, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[25] Critics generally praised the EP's sound; AllMusic described it as one of the most innovative releases of the 2000s garage rock revival at the time,[26] while Everett True wrote that it captured the spirit of rock n' roll.[11] Karen O's performances were highlighted for additional praise, with writers for Blender and CMJ describing her as "hot and sexy".[27][14] Some criticism was directed at its sound quality, which was seen as limiting its potential,[5] while a Stylus writer found three of its five tracks unremarkable.[29]Pitchfork noted early skepticism surrounding the rock movement but concluded that the EP demonstrated a "sharp survey" of the band's capabilities.[28]
In 2002, NME ranked Yeah Yeah Yeahs second on its list of the year's best singles.[30] In the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Sasha Frere-Jones awarded the EP four stars, writing that the band "instantly made their case for good-old-fashioned attitude"; the EP scored higher than their acclaimed debut album, Fever to Tell.[19] In 2024, writers for Paste ranked it at number 42 on their list of the "100 Greatest EPs of All Time", writing that it built on the early works of contemporaries like the Strokes and Interpol.[18]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, except where noted.
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