Surprisingly enough, the title suits the tone of the album quite well—lead singer Karen O’s voice is strikingly incisive, and her high-pitch screeches (to be interpreted in the best of ways) are simultaneously painful and sublime. But what is really so striking about Mosquito is not its connections to nasty bugs, but rather how radically different it is from the rest of the band’s work.
Of course, this claim alone is difficult to qualify, as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs never really emphasized a coherent sound: even the band’s best tracks, like “Maps,” “Gold Lion,” or “Zero” sound nothing alike. But Mosquito’s prominent, electronic-heavy instrumentation pushes Mosquito far away from the group’s traditional rock orientation, and much of the songwriting tunnels Karen O and company deeper into the rabbit hole of experimentation. Opening track “Sacrilege” begins with Karen O soloing a punk anthem but ends with the shouts of an overwhelming gospel chorus, and its effect is risky but powerful.
This kind of exploration is not always successful. There are moments where Mosquito’s songs wander, and some of the album feels like Karen O endlessly repeating a harmony over an indiscriminate wall of sound. But when the stars align for Mosquito, like on “These Paths,” title track “Mosquito,” and “Despair,” the result crafts an edgy yet anthemic atmosphere that truly capitalizes on the best that the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s have to offer.