Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

The operative word here is 'classy'. Having proved themselves peerless art-punks with a screeching, cool-as-fuck frontwoman on their first album, Fever to Tell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs took their sweet time making the follow up. During that time Karen O became a bona fide fashion icon and endured a messy break-up, while a thousand skinny-jeaned, tramp-haired indie boybands blossomed and died in the unforgiving heat of the media spotlight.

Yet when they finally returned with Show Your Bones, nothing seemed to have changed except YYYs themselves. Gone were the two minute Stooges-style thrash-abouts with shock-tactic lyrics and in their absence the dark, romantic heart of the band was laid bare. It's a direction hinted at on Fever to Tell's 'Maps' and pushed to fruition on this album's luminous 'Cheated Hearts', which should be prescribed on the NHS to every jilted lover, and the aching, winsome closer, 'Turn Into'. These songs nudged Ms O into an iconic mid-point between PJ Harvey and Debbie Harry: bloodied, defiant, yet sophisticated and always classy.

Best tracks: 'Turn Into', 'Cheated Hearts', 'Honey Bear'

Richard Morris