January 15, 2013 10:02

Karen O promises new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album is 'uplifting and cheerful'

Singer says she went through an identity crisis making fourth record

Photo Gallery: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Photo: Pamela Littky

Karen O has revealed that Yeah Yeah Yeahs new album is the band's most stripped back and lo-fi sounding work in years, saying the songs are both "uplifting and cheerful".

As revealed by NME yesterday (Jan 14), the New York band will release new album 'Mosquito' in April. You can see the album's controversial artwork by scrolling down the page.

Speaking in a new interview Karen O revealed how the dark times members of the group were going through personally led the music to become an escape, as well as returning to their lo-fi roots. "Emotionally, it's been a rollercoaster," she told Pitchfork. "Being back in New York is intense for me. I've gone through an identity crisis. It's been very emotionally intense for Nick (Zinner, guitar), too. He was going through a break-up while we were making the album. It was just all kind of down."

Elaborating on the sound of 'Mosquito', she added: "There were dark times. So whenever we'd go into our studio space, we would just try and play music that was as uplifting and cheerful. The music is more of a prescription for what we were feeling. It was like a pep talk. And it's extremely lo-fi. We had a shitty drum machine, a shitty sampled keyboard, tons of delay on the vocals. There's a real tone, character, and style to it. And it's probably some of the most tongue-in-cheek stuff that we've done in a while."

To read the world exclusive comeback interview with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, pick up a copy of next week's NME, which will be available on newsstands a week on Wednesday (January 23) and available digitally.

The world's greatest music magazine is now available as a digital edition! For exclusive content you won't find on NME.COM, download here on your iPad/iPhone and here on your Kindle Fire or Nook.

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