Yeah Yeah Yeahs Release First New Song in Nine Years, Off Forthcoming Album ‘Cool It Down’

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have released their first new song in nine years, “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World,” off the band’s upcoming new album, Cool It Down, due out fall 2022.

Produced by David Sitek, “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World,” featuring Perfume Genius and drips in YYYs synth with its lyrics more laser focused on the plight of the environment and the damage mankind has done to the Earth with Karen O singing Cowards! / Here’s the sun / So bow your heads / In the absence of bombs / Draw your breath through the refrain of And the kids cry out / We’re spitting off the edge of the world / Out in the night / Never had no chance /Nowhere to hide / We’re spitting off the edge of the world. 

“I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiance,” said O in a statement. “It’s galvanizing, and there’s hope there.”

The album title pulled from the 1970 Velvet Underground Loaded track of the same name, Cool It Down marks the band’s first release since Mosquito in 2013. “I told Alex Prager whose photo graces our record cover that her image speaks to sweeping themes in the music and sums up how I, Karen, feel existentially in these times,” said O. “But there’s always more to the story. This is how our new story begins, we present to you with heads bowed and fists in the air ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World.’”

The New York City- and LA-based band, consisting of singer Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase, recently revealed that they signed to Secretly Canadian and are scheduled to play two headlining shows this fall, one in NYC and another in LA. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first show back in New York is scheduled for Oct. 1 at Forest Hills Stadium with a Los Angeles show to follow at the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 6. Both shows will feature special guests the Linda Lindas, along with Japanese Breakfast at the Los Angeles show.

The band is also set to perform in London and Australia, in addition to an appearance at the Montreal Osheaga Festival and the Primavera Fest in Barcelona throughout the summer.

“To all who have waited, our dear fans, thank you, our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed,” added O. “[I] don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you’ve been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made. No shying away from the feels, or backing down from what’s been gripping all of us these days.”

She added, “So yes we’ve taken our time—happy to report when it’s ready it really does just flow out.”

Cool It Down tracklist

1. Spitting Off the Edge of the World feat. Perfume Genius
2. Lovebomb
3. Wolf
4. Fleez
5. Burning
6. Blacktop
7. Different Today
8. Mars