Yeah Yeah Yeahs (often mistitled as Master) is the debut extended play (EP) by the American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. After forming in 2000 and building a reputation with their live shows, Yeah Yeah Yeahs recorded and produced the EP with Jerry Teel, a member of Boss Hog. It is a record featuring the band's early garage rock and art punk influences. It was self-released on July 9, 2001, and reissued in 2002 by Touch and Go in the United States, Wichita Recordings in the United Kingdom, and other independent labels worldwide.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs was received positively by critics and ranked by NME as the second best single of 2002. It received little attention upon release but became a sleeper hit after its reissue, topping the UK Indie Chart and exceeding sales of 71,000 units in the United States by the end of the decade. In 2024, Paste ranked it among the greatest EPs ever made.
The singer/songwriter Karen O and guitarist Nick Zinner founded the acoustic duo Unitard in 2000. They changed their name that year to Yeah Yeah Yeahs and shifted to a "trashy, punky, [and] grimy" sound inspired by the contemporary Ohio music scene. In September 2000, they added drummer Brian Chase to the lineup. By early 2001, the band earned a live following. During this period, they began creating music and enlisted Jerry Teel, a former guitarist for the punk rock band Boss Hog, to co-produce a demo intended to secure more shows. However, they ultimately developed the demo into their debut EP, a decision that Zinner attributes to their desire to share their music.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs was recorded at Avenue B's Funhouse Recording Studio with TeelâÂÂwhich doubled as their rehearsal spaceâÂÂwhile Chuck Scott mastered it at Soundoptik in New York City. The artwork and packaging was designed by the band and Crispin. The front cover is a close-up of a topless Karen O, and the back cover features three different self-photographs of her, Zinner and Chase. Although it is self-titled, the EP is sometimes mistitled as Master due to the necklace Karen O wears on the cover.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs consists of five tracks and runs for 13 minutes and 52 seconds. The songs were written by Karen O and its music was composed by the band. The rock band ESG served as a primary influence for the EP, with the band attempting to recreate their sound "with guitar instead of bass." They also aimed to capture the "cocky attitude" they had whilst performing live. Karen O's staccato vocals became a focal point of the record, though she described her singing as "really, really, really sloshed." Other influences include the rock bands Blondie, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Tommy James and the Shondells.
The opening track, "Bang", is about Karen O's sexual dissatisfaction with an ex-boyfriend, emphasized by the repeated lyric "As a fuck, son, you sucked!" The band co-wrote "Mystery Girl" with Jack Martin, which is about a sexually-promiscuous woman and her adventures. "Art Star", whose lyrics satirizes jet-set culture and the art world, is the only Yeah Yeah Yeahs song with a spoken word introduction and screaming vocals. "Miles Away" is about a woman that has "hurt fewer people in a better world". The closing track, "Our Time" (originally titled "Time to Be Hated") was the first song Karen O ever wrote for Yeah Yeah Yeahs and one of her favorites. It is an anthem about a romance that nearly failed and perseverance, which came to inspire New Yorkers after the September 11 attacks.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs was self-released by the band on July 9, 2001, through their own Shifty label, and received little attention on release. After gaining significant media coverage for a high-profile performance at South by Southwest in 2002, it was reissued by independent labels such as Touch and Go Records in the United States and Wichita Recordings in the United Kingdom. The EP became a sleeper hit, reaching number one on the UK Indie Chart, number nine on the Australia Hitseekers Chart, number seven on the Danish Singles Chart, and number 56 on the Swedish Singles Chart.
By 2009, Yeah Yeah Yeahs had reportedly sold over 71,000 copies in the United States. In April 2010, a batch of limited-edition copies were reissued through Wichita to celebrate the label's 10th anniversary.
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, Yeah Yeah Yeahs received an average score of 73, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Critics generally praised the EP's sound; AllMusic described it as one of the most innovative releases of the 2000s garage rock revival at the time, while Everett True wrote that it captured the spirit of rock n' roll. Karen O's performances were highlighted for additional praise, with writers for Blender and CMJ describing her as "hot and sexy". Some criticism was directed at its sound quality, which was seen as limiting its potential, while a Stylus writer found three of its five tracks unremarkable. Pitchfork noted early skepticism surrounding the rock movement but concluded that the EP demonstrated a "sharp survey" of the band's capabilities.
In 2002, NME ranked Yeah Yeah Yeahs second on its list of the year's best singles. In the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Sasha Frere-Jones awarded the EP four stars, writing that the band "instantly made their case for good-old-fashioned attitude"; the EP scored higher than their acclaimed debut album, Fever to Tell. In 2016, Under the Radar ranked it among the best albums of its year, and said that it was essential both to the band's success and the contemporary New York music scene. In 2024, writers for Paste ranked it at number 42 on their list of the "100 Greatest EPs of All Time", writing that it built on the early works of contemporaries like the Strokes and Interpol.
Credits are adapted from the 2001 CD release.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Additional personnel