Tick, Tick, Yeah: 'Fever To Tell' turns 20
Updated: Apr 29, 2023
Twenty damn years ago today, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs iconic album ‘Fever To Tell’ came out and so began the journey of this band we all fell into a modern romance with.
From start to finish, we’re taken on a wild ride of witty lyricism, catchy little riffs and of course the unique and sassy vocal stylings of the fabulous Karen O.
I first discovered the Yeah Yeah Yeahs one early morning before school when their video for ‘Maps’ came on. Now me being the age I was at the time, I definitely remember thinking the video was quite odd, but I enjoyed the simplicity of it as it seemed to make the song that much more powerful.
But alas that one tear shed by Karen O and the one sentence hooked me like it hooked the rest of the world, "Wait, they don’t love you like I love you". My whole world felt like it was melting and my heart shattered into a million pieces. Now of course I was only in 7th or 8th grade at the time, but come on, that’s when we had the MOST feelings. So of course after hearing that I made my parents take me to Target to pick up the album that would stay in my banana yellow Discman for months.
For this celebration of 20 years I decided to dissect the album a bit and pick out 20 of my favorite, witty lines. They are in no particular order, just ones that stuck with me then and now.
Song: Rich
“I’m rich, like a hot noise”
“So stuck up, I wish you’d stick it to me”
(To this day I always chuckle after singing this line out loud. Yes, I still act like I’m 14 sometimes. Sue me).
Song: Date With The Night
“Don’t tell me to fix her”
“I’ll set you, I’ll set it off”
(Okay so this one is simple, but the way she sings this… just go listen).
Song: Man
“Cause we do what we gotta do real well and we’ve got the fever to tell”
Song: Black Tongue
“We’re high in the back room, gonna have a pack soon”
“Boy you just a stupid bitch and girl you’re just a no good dick”
(This one weighed heavy with me my freshman year when my secret crush dated a girl I loathed. Oh the sting of young and secret loves).
Song: Cold Light
“Be my heater, be my lover”
Song: No No No
“Time froze like an ocean
Don't know the taste of a never ending ache”
“It's really not bad, not worse than you thought
He'll never come back as the man that you dropped
He'll never come back as the man that you loved”
“He'll always come back as the man you dropped”
(He ALWAYS comes back as the man you dropped. Remember that, y’all).
Song: Maps
“Wait, they don’t love you like I love you”
(You already knew).
But also…
“My kind’s your kind, I’ll stay the same”
Song: Y Control
“Well, I'm just one poor baby
'Cause, well, I believe them all”
“I wish I could buy back, the woman you stole”
(So whether I’ll know what they were talking about or not, this lyric weighed heavy with me when I got older. I remember sitting in my car, saying this line to myself, wishing I could indeed buy back the person I was before my heart was broken by some mediocre soul. Emo was on high with this explanation, I know. It was never a phase, y’all).
Song: Modern Romance
“Don't hold on, go get strong”
Let’s cry now…
Song: Poor Song
“Baby I'm afraid of a lot of
things,but l ain't scared of lovin' you”
“Cause all I see is what's in front of me
and that's you”
“And baby I can see you've been fucked with too, but that don't mean your lovin' days are through”
“Well I may be just a fool, but I know you're just as cool. And cool kids,
they belong together”
(This f***ing song. So originally, this was a hidden track at the end of 'Modern Romance'. So you can imagine me fast forwarding through MR to get to it as I enjoyed torturing myself emotionally over and over. Regardless of how sad or alive it makes you feel, there’s no denying that this simple little track and its daggers for lyrics is one of the most emo-est of tunes. And what made it even better back then is that it was this little hidden gem that caught you by surprise and brought you all the comfort ).
Through the years the Yeah Yeah Yeahs continued to give us phenomenal albums. But ‘Fever To Tell’, like most firsts, held a special place in my 8th grade heart and still does today. So dust off that discman, take a ride down nostalgia lane and play this gem of an album a little louder today. Let those lyrics sink in, enjoy all the Karen O moans we love so much and don’t forget, we're all cool kids and we belong together.
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