Is Is [EP]
by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Album details

US: 24 July 2007 on Fontana/Interscope
UK: 23 July 2007 on Polydor

Nick Launay produced this 5-track collection of studio versions of songs that the band has been performing in their live sets (but that have never found their way to record before).

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The critical consensus

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs attracted buzz back in the early part of this decade with just a single EP (well, and a great live show), and that shorter format may still suit the band well even today. At least All Music Guide thinks so, saying that Is Is "reaffirms that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs may be at their best on their EPs." Stylus, too, praises "their skill with the EP form." Or maybe critics just prefer older (rather than shorter) YYYs, as the EP includes songs written well before the release of their 2006 sophomore LP. That’s Aversion’s take, and they enjoy the short disc’s "steamy, sexual and primal rock’n'roll" that’s wrapped "in a super-chic package that transforms it from mere garage-rock trash to beautifully self-aware Big Apple indie rock."

Lost At Sea did like the previous album, but says that even fans who didn’t will enjoy the stripped-down Is Is, which reaffirms the band as "raw and provocative." Drowned In Sound finds that "the tone is more mysterious, the air more heavy" compared to Show Your Bones, which they feel is a function of Karen O having more control over the songs than Nick Zinner. Pitchfork determines the EP to lie somewhere in between the two full-lengths in terms of sound, and adds, "Is Is may be their most instantly accessible release, which is not a critical dig but just a way of saying it finds a good balance between alienating and inviting, between song and performance."

Prefix, for one, wishes the album would have been released several years ago when the songs were written, saying that they don’t quite fit in with present-day YYYs. Or maybe they just don’t sound as good as they do live: "On record, these songs are so direct that they lack the depth and texture that more sonic detail would deliver." (Of course, they add that all five songs are "great.") The Onion doesn’t hear greatness; instead, they only hear "frustrating hints" of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ strengths.

Is Is may not be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ most immediately accessible music, but it is some of their most compelling work in some time.

- Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Review roundup

Tracklisting and media

1. Rockers To Swallow
   (live performance:)
   
   
2. Down Boy
   (live performance:)
   
   
3. Kiss Kiss
   (live performance:)
   
   
4. Isis
   (live performance:)
   
   
5. 10 x 10
   (live performance:)
   
   

Also on the web

• Official Artist Site
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ MySpace