''Mosquito'' is the fourth studio album by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Yeah Yeah Yeahs The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complem ...

, released on April 12, 2013, by

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...

. The lead single "

Sacrilege Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physical ...

" was released on February 26, 2013. "Despair" was released as the second single on July 19, 2013.

Karen O Karen Lee Orzolek (born November 22, 1978) is a South Korean-born American singer, musician, and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist for the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Early life She was born in Seoul, South Korea, the daughter of a Ko ...

described the album as "extremely

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

", explaining: "We had a shitty drum machine, a shitty sampled keyboard, tons of delay on the vocals. There's a real tone, character, and style to it."

Promotion

The full album was posted on

Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

page featuring a track-by-track interview with the band on April 2, 2013. On April 5, the band appeared on ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...

'' to perform "Sacrilege" accompanied by the

gospel choir Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

Broadway Inspirational Voices. Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed the songs "Mosquito" and "Sacrilege" on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

'' on April 15. A music video for the title track, directed by B. Shimbe Shim, debuted on May 8, 2013. The video for the second single "Despair" was directed by

Patrick Daughters Patrick Daughters (born 1976 in Berkeley, California) is an American music videomaker and commercial director currently signed to Anonymous Content. Daughters is a graduate of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. While still in colleg ...

and premiered on June 21.

Reception

Critical response

''Mosquito'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 75, based on 39 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Commercial performance

''Mosquito'' entered the ''Billboard'' 200 at number five with 38,000 copies sold in its first week, earning the band their first top-10 album on the chart. The album debuted at number nine on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

with first-week sales of 9,150 copies, becoming the band's third consecutive top-10 album.

Accolades

''Mosquito'' was ranked number 30 on ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''s "50 Best Albums of 2013" list and number 40 on ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

''s "Top 50 Albums of 2013" list.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of the deluxe edition of ''Mosquito''.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Brian Chase Brian Chase (born February 12, 1978) is an American drummer and drone musician who plays in the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He was ranked at #50 in Gigwise's list of ''The Greatest Drummers of All Time''. He plays drums with tradition ...

– drums, cymbals, percussion, vocals *

– vocals, bass, keyboards *

Nick Zinner Nicholas Joseph Zinner (born December 8, 1974) is an American guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a record producer. Zinner is an accomplished photographer. Musical career Before forming the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs with Karen O and ...

– guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals

Additional musicians

David Andrew Sitek David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

– bass *

Money Mark Mark Ramos Nishita (born February 10, 1960), known professionally as Money Mark, is an American producer and musician, best known for his collaborations with the Beastie Boys from 1992 until 2011. Early life Born in Detroit to a Japanese-Hawai ...

– keyboards *

Dr. Octagon Dr. Octagon is a persona created and used by United States, American rapping, rapper Keith Matthew Thornton, better known as Kool Keith. First appearing on Thornton's 1996 debut solo album, ''Dr. Octagonecologyst''. The album examines the impers ...

– vocals * Debra Barsha – choir vocal arrangement * Michael McElroy – choir leader * Danielle Chambers – choir * Shayna Cook – choir * Bradley Dean – choir * Laura Dean – choir * Tanesha Gray – choir * Lucia Giannetta – choir * Renee Goldsberry – choir * Danielle L. Greaves – choir * Marva Hicks – choir * Zonya Johnson – choir * Chelsea Krombach – choir * Adriane Lenox – choir * Lisa Lynne Mathis – choir * Travis Morin – choir * Jesse Nager – choir * John Eric Parker – choir * Desiree Rodriguez – choir * Eliseo Roman – choir * Michael Seelbach – choir * Virginia Woodruff – choir

Technical

Nick Launay Nicolas Launay is an English record producer, composer and recording engineer. He is one of the most sought after record producers in the world due to his success with recent albums by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Anna Calvi, IDLES, Black Reb ...

– production ; recording, engineering * David Andrew Sitek – production ; recording, engineering * James Murphy – production ; recording, engineering *

Sam Spiegel Samuel P. Spiegel (November 11, 1901December 31, 1985) was an American independent film producer born in the Galician area of Austria-Hungary. Financially responsible for some of the most critically acclaimed motion pictures of the 20th centur ...

– production ; recording, engineering *

– production * Nick Zinner – mixing * Wes Fontenot – mixing, engineering * Manuel Calderon – engineering ; engineering assistance * Abby Echiverri – mixing ; engineering * Zeph Sowers – recording, engineering * Atom – engineering assistance * Rudyard Lee Cullers – engineering assistance * Nathan Eldridge – engineering assistance * Matt Foster – engineering assistance * Charles Godfrey – engineering assistance * Matt Thornley – engineering assistance * Craig Silvey – mixing * Eduardo de la Paz – mixing assistance * Greg Calbi – mastering

Artwork

* Beomsik Shimbe Shim – art * Julian Gross – design, layout * Karen O – concept * Dan Martensen – back cover photo

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Albums produced by Dave Sitek Albums produced by James Murphy (electronic musician) Albums produced by Nick Launay Albums recorded at Sonic Ranch Interscope Records albums Polydor Records albums Yeah Yeah Yeahs albums