WHY CARE: Critical favorites the Yeah Yeah Yeahs return with their most accessible album yet, “It’s Blitz!,” out on Tuesday.
TRIVIA: Singer Karen O is writing music for the movie version of “Where the Wild Things Are,” directed by her ex-boyfriend, Spike Jonze.
STANDOUTS: “Runaway,” a sad little song about obsession, is built around a bare piano and some repetitive, forceful lyrics.
FANS DIG: Slinky outfits
ANDY SAYS: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs deliver less shock and more awe on their third album, a synthesizer-heavy outing. The trio, working again with producer Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, move away from the art-punk shout of earlier work. The result is less raucous, but plenty memorable.
GRADE: B-plus
Handsome Furs, “Face Control”
WHY CARE: The husband-wife team of Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry release their second album, out now on Seattle’s Sub Pop Records.
TRIVIA: Boeckner also sings lead for Sub Pop band Wolf Parade.
STANDOUTS: Boeckner is at his most jittery during the cowbell-friendly rocker “I’m Confused.”
FANS DIG: Matrimony
ANDY SAYS: The Handsome Furs are being compared to Springsteen thanks to their snare-heavy beats and gritty lyrics like, “I hope this life don’t get you down. It’s a dirty old time in a dirty old town.” Springsteen never used a synthesizer like these two, though. The duo ends up finding the middle ground between dimly lit bars and discotheques.
GRADE: B
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com.
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