A month ago, Yeah Yeah Yeahs made a triumphant return with their fifth studio album and first release in nearly a decade, “Cool It Down”. While the record is steeped in elements of horror—born as it was as the result of the pandemic and all the anxieties that came flooding up to the surface during those early months—the track “Wolf” stands out as a worthy candidate for any Halloween playlist. Today they’re further building a case for the song’s spooky themes with an Allie Avital–directed music video that feels particularly seasonal due both to its subject matter and its star, who you may recognize from a recent TV series dealing in a very different kind of horror.
“When I heard the title of the song and description of the role were both ‘Wolf’ it was a full-body ‘yes,’” shared Severance star Britt Lower, who becomes increasingly wolf-like as the new visual progresses. “To get to work on a story about a woman discovering the wild within and without was a dream. And to do so alongside legend Karen O…I mean, I’m speechless.”
On their first album in nine years, the Brooklyn post-punk trio give us the most open-hearted and deeply felt music of their career. They open with “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” a song that’s every bit as towering as their classic ballad “Maps,” but this time the crisis isn’t romantic, it’s political, environmental, and generational. Then they proceed to dance the pain away on “Wolf” and “Fleez,” songs steeped in the arty New York grooves that have kept cool kids moving things forward since the 1970s. On the heartrending “Blacktop,” singer Karen O quotes Dylan Thomas over a Brian Eno synth drone. As she begs us to “hold on ’til the love is gone,” her words move through the music’s dark engulfing beauty like a faint message of hope in a sea of doubt and chaos.
“We were beside ourselves with excitement when Allie cast Brit as the lead in the video,” Karen O added of the collaboration. “YYYs are serious nerds for Severance—what luck when the stars align.”
from the album ‘Cool it Down’, out now on Secretly Canadian.
The Fat Angel Sings 