Mosquito is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released in April 2013, by Interscope Records. The lead single "Sacrilege" was released on February 26, 2013. "Despair" was released as the second single on July 19, 2013.
Karen O described the album as "extremely lo-fi", 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."
Background
Album cover The album cover for Mosquito was created by the South Korean-born animator Beomsik Shimbe Shim, also known as Shimbe. It depicts a spike-haired baby being attacked by a blood-sucking mosquito. Shimbe and Karen O were inspired by the surreal landscapes of Alice in Wonderland and children's illustrators of the 1970s and 1980s. Explaining the cover, Shimbe said in an interview:
Reception towards the cover was polarizing, receiving comparisons to the Garbage Pail Kids; fan reception was negative. The Guardian Sean Michaels said: "At best, it's phantasmagoric. At worst, it feels like a computer-generated tribute to Karen O's favourite film, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie ." Shimbe admitted being surprised by the backlash at first, before receiving an email from Karen O that said: "We don't have fans because we do what they want us to do, we have fans because we do whatever we want and that's really what they want the most." The cover later appeared on Rolling Stone list of the 50 worst album covers of all time, at number 45, in 2024.
Release The full album was posted on Noisey's YouTube 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 to perform "Sacrilege" accompanied by the gospel choir Broadway Inspirational Voices. Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed the songs "Mosquito" and "Sacrilege" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! 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 and premiered on June 21.
Reception
Critical response Mosquito received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on 39 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Mosquito was ranked number 30 on NMEs "50 Best Albums of 2013" list and number 40 on Vices "Top 50 Albums of 2013" list.
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 with first-week sales of 9,150 copies, becoming the band's third consecutive top-10 album.
Track listing
Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of the deluxe edition of Mosquito.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Brian Chase – drums, cymbals, percussion, vocals Karen O – vocals, bass, keyboards Nick Zinner – guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals
Additional musicians
David Andrew Sitek – bass Money Mark – keyboards Dr. Octagon – 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 – production ; recording, engineering David Andrew Sitek – production ; recording, engineering James Murphy – production ; recording, engineering Sam Spiegel – production ; recording, engineering Yeah Yeah Yeahs – 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 + Chart performance for Mosquito Chart (2013) Peakposition Croatian Albums (HDU) 23 Greek Albums (IFPI) 27 Japanese Albums (Oricon) 54 Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico) 66 South Korean Albums (Gaon) 88
Release history + Release dates and formats for Mosquito Region Date Format Edition Label Australia April 12, 2013 Modular Germany Universal LP Standard United Kingdom April 15, 2013 Polydor LP Standard United States April 16, 2013 LP Standard Canada Deluxe Universal Standard Japan April 17, 2013 CD Digital download
References
External links