Operator Please - Yes Yes Vindictive (Brille)
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
This album was all so overwhelming one didn't know where to start... should we scuffle through the point that this is so much better than the first Long Blondes album, or just go straight to the fact that, excluding moments of reserved clarity, this could have been a lost Yeah Yeah Yeahs record? With the exception of 'Two For My Seconds' which strangely sounds as though it's lifted from an arcade version of the last Kaiser Chief record - though it's so superbly pop you can't help but love it - this is a relentless clash of the airwaves.
It's happy-hardcore, fuming and feisty, articulate and stacked with adrenaline. This record has been hyped beyond all pragmatic praise, but when you're into 'Just A Song About Ping Pong' all the hysteria around the band goes out the window and you feel like you're shagging an old friend. It's fascinatingly familiar, but so nerve-racking and exhilarating that all the NME coverage in the universe couldn't put you off what is in effect one of the greatest pop albums of 2008.
It tries to be dark and brooding, which doesn't really work unfortunately; '6/8' pushing an attitude that doesn't really fasten, instead taking you away from the merrymaking of the album like a drunk girlfriend on the stairs at a party. You feel duty-bound to listen to the track and you know it's probably imperative and well-orchestrated, but all you want to do is get back to the fun, no matter how dramatic and exciting this bypass is. And believe us; it's as dramatic and insubordinate as any pop album will ever dare be, with surreal notions at grungy rock 'n' roll that sound great but don't quite work in the environment of the album.
As flattering as I can ever be though, the vocals do get tinny after a while and for all its elation, there's not masses of originality here making it a magnificent pastiche, but not a great innovation for music. But In short, if you like to throw yourself around the dancefloor and enjoy every second of it, not giving two shits what the skinny-jeaned tossers think; this is the record for you. It's so much better than perhaps even its makers appreciate and will be an album that will, unquestionably, stand the test of time becoming more esteemed as the scene fades to memory.
Artists in this article: Operator Please
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