Cool It Down is something of a misnomer. The first album from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs since 2013 fumes, seethes, smokes, smirks. It’s not the polemic that acerbic lead single Spitting Off the Edge of the World, a collaboration with Los Angeles indie luminary Perfume Genius, may have suggested. But it’s not placid, either: minimalist and, at only eight tracks, intensely focused, it crackles with furious energy, a slow-motion film of combusting fireworks.
