Fever to Tell

{{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |Template:Short description|noreplace}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Machine2002Show Your Bones2006studioFever to TellYeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell.pngYeah Yeah YeahsTemplate:Start dateHeadgear (Brooklyn, New York)* Garage rock revival

• art punk
• dance-punkTemplate:DurationInterscope* David Andrew Sitek
• Yeah Yeah Yeahsx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}

Fever to Tell is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 29, 2003, by Interscope Records. It was produced by David Andrew Sitek and mixed by Alan Moulder. Four singles were issued, the first being "Date with the Night" followed by "Pin", "Maps" and "Y Control".

Fever to Tell was both a critical and commercial success; it has sold one million copies worldwide.

Recording and production

By 2002, Yeah Yeah Yeahs had achieved a respected reputation for their live performances and critical acclaim for their debut EP, leading to several overtures from major record labels. The band wanted to finance their debut album themselves and chose to record at the low-budget Headgear Studio in Brooklyn. "It was really important for us to do it on our turf, on our terms", lead singer Karen O later told Spin. "We were all living together, and all the money we used to fund it came out of our pocket."<ref name="Epstein"/>

Fever to Tell was produced by Yeah Yeah Yeahs with David Andrew Sitek, a multi-instrumentalist and producer from the band TV on the Radio.<ref name="Epstein"/> Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner first met Sitek while working together at a Brooklyn clothing store, and he went on to drive and manage them for their first concert tour. In 2002, the band asked Sitek to produce their debut album. Karen O recalls the decision in an interview with Lizzy Goodman for her 2017 book Meet Me in the Bathroom. "I remember him giving me a few burned CDs of stuff that he had worked on", Karen O said. "I guess he was just a buddy, and we felt immediately like we were family with him. And we didn't know anyone else. That was probably one of the biggest reasons we worked with him, because we didn't know anyone else. Then, of course, he ended up being really fucking masterful."<ref name="Epstein"/>

Once the recording was finished, the album was mixed in London by Zinner and sound engineer Alan Moulder.<ref name=dimery />

Musical style

According to Paste, Fever to Tell was representative of the early-2000s' garage rock revival,<ref name="Paste">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while Dan Epstein from Rolling Stone called the record an "NYC art-punk landmark".<ref name="Epstein">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Its music was also described as "ecstatic dance punk", by Alex Denney of The Guardian.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Journalist Jon Pareles of The New York Times said that the band "are closer to Siouxsie and the Banshees (but with a grin) and Led Zeppelin (but with estrogen) than to the blues". The slow closing track "Modern Romance" was compared to a Velvet Underground drone.<ref name=rolling /> Music historian Nick Kent compared Karen O's singing style to Lydia Lunch and PJ Harvey. Kent also described the record as musically "Siouxsie Sioux jamming with Led Zeppelin".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Journalist Alexis Petridis remarked that "Y Control" was based on a riff from art-rockers Big Black, then transformed into spacey new-wave pop.<ref name=alexis />

Marketing and sales

Fever to Tell was released on May 3, 2003, by Interscope Records.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It debuted at number 67 on the Billboard 200 in the week of May 17.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> To promote the album, "Date with the Night" and "Pin" were released as the first two singles. Interscope wanted to release "Maps" earlier but the band's resistance delayed it until February 2004, when the album had sold only 124,000 copies. The single became a hit on MTV and rock radio, charting at number nine on BillboardTemplate:'s Hot Modern Rock Tracks, and its success helped triple sales of the album.<ref name="Epstein"/>

In March 2009, the album reached sales of more than one million copies worldwide.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As of March 2013, Fever to Tell had sold 640,000 copies in United States.<ref name="US sales">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Critical reception

Template:Music ratings Fever to Tell was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on 27 reviews.<ref name="metacritic1"/> In a four star review, Andrew Perry of Rolling Stone wrote: "There are half a dozen songs under three minutes on Fever to Tell, and they sound absolutely complete".<ref name=rolling /> Andrew Perry from The Daily Telegraph called it an "exhilarating dose of lo-fi garage-rock".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau observed "a striking sound" that is "both big and punk, never a natural combo", and highlighted by Zinner's "dangerous riffs". He had reservations about the subject matter, however; while noting "two human-scale songs toward the end", Christgau said "to care about this band you have to find Karen O's fuck-me persona provocative if not seductive, and since I've never been one for the sex-is-combat thing, I find it silly or obnoxious depending on who's taking it seriously."<ref name="vv"/>

Fever to Tell was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and was certified gold in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The video for "Maps" received nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the MTV2 Award at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. The New York Times chose Fever to Tell as the best album of 2003.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In June 2005, the album was ranked number 89 on Spin magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Featuring in the 2010 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fever to Tell was hailed as "the coolest and cleverest record of 2003".<ref name=dimery>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2009, the album was named by NME, Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone the fifth, 24th, and 28th best album of the 2000s decade, respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2019, the album was ranked 38th on The Guardian's 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2020, it was ranked number 377 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All-Time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Impact and legacy

FeverTemplate:'s 2017 reissue garnered critical acclaim. The Line of Best FitTemplate:'s Joe Goggins wrote that it was "still [the band's] masterpiece" and dubbed it "a chaotic symphony in sex, debauchery and bottomless anxiety," positively comparing it to PJ Harvey's 1993 album Rid of Me.<ref name = TheLofBF /> UncutTemplate:'s Michael Bonner praised that it stayed "as visceral, as exciting, [and] as confounding as ever."<ref name = Uncut#2 />

Fever to Tell has impacted several genres, especially within NYC's early-'00s rock resurgence. In 2023, uDiscover Music's Laura Stavropoulos wrote that dance-rock, NYC's next wave, was put "into motion" through the "groove-laden" album. Within the era's "quickly calcifying" garage rock revival, Stavropoulos wrote that it provided "a sense of fun and urgency" to the scene.<ref name="uD M">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2018, it was deemed "one of [that scene's] few enduring albums" by Steve Foxe of Paste. The site rated it #15 out of the 50 all-time greatest garage rock albums.<ref name = Paste /> Within indie rock, Fever has left "an indelible mark". In 2022, NMETemplate:'s Erica Campbell wrote that it paved the way for the genre's future "devil may care frontwom[e]n and an abundance of rule-breaking by those seeking post-punk creativity."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Track listing

2017 limited deluxe edition box set

Notes

• Track 11 includes the hidden track "Poor Song" at the 4:25 mark, after "Modern Romance" ends at 3:15. "Poor Song" appears as a separate track on the 2017 digital deluxe remastered edition.<ref name="remastered"/>

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Fever to Tell.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

• Brian Chase – drums
• Karen O – vocals
• Nick Zinner – guitars, drum machine

Technical

• David Andrew Sitek – production Template:Small; mixing Template:Small
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – production
• Paul Mahajan – engineering
• Alan Moulder – mixingTemplate:Efn Template:Small
• Nick Zinner – mixingTemplate:Efn Template:Small
• Rick Levy – mixing assistance
• Chris Coady – post-production Template:Small
• Howie Weinberg – masteringTemplate:Efn
• Roger Lian – track editing
• Cody Critcheloe – artwork

Charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Chart performance for Fever to Tell

Chart (2003–2004)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite magazineTemplate:Cbignore</ref>	80
European Albums (Music & Media)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	42
Irish Albums (IRMA)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	18

Certifications

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