They have crafted a sound that is new for them and unique in its context, but that falls neatly into what we have come to expect from a trio whose power and creativity runs consistently unchecked.
It combines such a variety of disparate styles that it really should not work, but Yeah Yeah Yeahs manage to tie everything together seamlessly into what is possibly their most assured and unique record to date.
Mosquito takes a much more open-ended, and less studied, approach to Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ electric eccentricity.
For a band who knows their history with their own vocal and guitar sound, the genre-hopping is a natural fit.
It is a blazingly enjoyable record, the most purely fun album the band has made since Fever to Tell.
They don't sound so zeitgeisty anymore, but "Mosquito" caterwauls mightily, and the closing "Wedding Song" is a feat of lip-quivering sensitivity up there with "Maps."
They've stepped up their ballad game, and the grooves, smartly percussive and Kanye-slick, are deeper than ever.
[Shimbe] promised the imagery would make sense with the music. And, in a way it does. It captures this record's sense of cartoonish, pop fun and lo-fi cut'n'paste punk roots.
For all their consistency, it's good to know Yeah Yeah Yeahs remain capable of pulling off the unexpected.
More of a pick and mix selection than a fully formed record, Mosquito at times punctures the skin but not often enough does it have sufficient zeal to take a good slurp of your life source.
Solicited as a return to basics, it’s actually more of a compromise, blending the garage melee of their earlier efforts with danceable tempos and emotionally searing balladry.
When they hark back to dingy dives, it falters, but when they embrace the synthesizer, the LP is astounding.
A confusing, intriguing record, then. Not their strongest, but there's a transition underway.
It might not be as cohesive as their best albums, but the standout songs rival their finest moments.
Mosquito is not without highlights, but it requires some patience to unearth them, because when this record is bad, it's loudly, brazenly bad.
Searing highlights make you wish the rest of Mosquito was a bit more full-blooded.
It feels like a reaction to the concise, clear-headed It's Blitz; wild-eyed hoopla, in that spontaneous, occasionally brilliant, occasionally patchy kind of way.
Divided between these sorts of small successes and outright failures, Mosquito is nowhere near a coherent album, which at this stage in the band’s career feels like a refreshing return to form.
All in all: not a bad album, but most of the time it’s more harmless midge than lethal mosquito.
Four albums later, the Brooklyn outfit has run so far from the proverbial leash that they’ve forgotten what home might be — and really, true freedom seems frivolous without any restraint.
With the electronic influence creeping in and more of a focus on great pop songs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs had seemed to have stopped making repetitious tracks. Seemed to. Mosquito is a big back step in that department.
Mosquito dips its toes into far too many pools to ever have a chance to really stop and appreciate the feeling.
It doesn’t follow a set path, makes a lot of noise in your ears, but its ultimately something you’ll want to swat away and get rid of because of just how badly it annoys you.
I ain’t ever seen a good album with a this shitty of a cover, it’s alway the album gotta be terrible
The only problem with this record is the cover (which is amazingly awful). For the rest this album is huge, grandiloquent, noisy, emotional at times and dark when it has to be dark. Step back my ass guys. This is great.
I'm disappointed.
It's not the worst thing I've heard, but man this album is such a step down from It's Blitz. While it opens up strong with "Sacrilege", it quickly dissolves into either a boring slog with songs like "Subway" or just plainly bad and goofy tracks like "Mosquito" or "Area 52", and don't get me started on that god awful rap verse on Buried Alive.
This album pretty much sounds like the terrible cover art to be honest.
1 | Sacrilege 3:50 | 90 |
2 | Subway 5:16 | 58 |
3 | Mosquito 2:59 | 68 |
4 | Under the Earth 4:18 | 66 |
5 | Slave 4:06 | 86 |
6 | These Paths 5:03 | 65 |
7 | Area 52 2:54 | 76 |
8 | Buried Alive 5:16 feat. Dr. Octagon | 62 |
9 | Always 4:07 | 68 |
10 | Despair 4:48 | 57 |
11 | Wedding Song 4:58 | 80 |
#30 | / | NME |