Mosquito (Yeah Yeah Yeahs album)

Mosquito is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 12, 2013, by Interscope Records. The lead single "Sacrilege" was released on February 26, 2013.^[3] "Despair" was released as the second single on July 19, 2013.^[4]

Mosquito
Studio album by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Released	April 12, 2013 (2013-04-12)
Studio	Sonic Ranch (Tornillo, Texas) Stratosphere Sound (New York City) DFA (New York City) Squeak E. Clean (Echo Park, California) The Square (London)
Genre	Art rock[1] art punk[2]
Length	47:31
Label	Dress Up Interscope
Producer	Nick Launay James Murphy David Andrew Sitek Sam Spiegel
Yeah Yeah Yeahs chronology
iTunes Originals: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2009) Mosquito (2013) Cool It Down (2022)
Singles from Mosquito
"Sacrilege" Released: February 26, 2013 "Despair" Released: 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."^[5]

Promotion

The full album was posted on Noisey's YouTube page featuring a track-by-track interview with the band on April 2, 2013.^[6] On April 5, the band appeared on Late Show with David Letterman to perform "Sacrilege" accompanied by the gospel choir Broadway Inspirational Voices.^[7] Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed the songs "Mosquito" and "Sacrilege" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on April 15.^[8]

A music video for the title track, directed by B. Shimbe Shim, debuted on May 8, 2013.^[9] The video for the second single "Despair" was directed by Patrick Daughters and premiered on June 21.^[10][11]

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	75/100[12]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
The A.V. Club	B+[14]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[15]
The Guardian	[16]
The Independent on Sunday	[17]
NME	7/10[18]
Pitchfork	6.0/10[19]
Rolling Stone	[20]
Slant Magazine	[21]
Spin	8/10[22]

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".^[12]

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.^[23] 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.^[24]

Accolades

Mosquito was ranked number 30 on NME's "50 Best Albums of 2013" list and number 40 on Vice's "Top 50 Albums of 2013" list.^[25][26]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Sacrilege"	Nick Launay David Andrew Sitek	3:50
2.	"Subway"	Sitek Launay	5:16
3.	"Mosquito"	Launay Sitek	2:59
4.	"Under the Earth"	Launay	4:18
5.	"Slave"	Launay Sitek	4:06
6.	"These Paths"	Sitek Launay	5:03
7.	"Area 52"	Launay Sitek	2:54
8.	"Buried Alive" (featuring Dr. Octagon)	James Murphy Sam Spiegel	5:16
9.	"Always"	Sitek Launay	4:06
10.	"Despair"	Sitek Launay	4:49
11.	"Wedding Song"	Sitek	4:54
Total length:			47:31

Deluxe edition and Japanese edition bonus tracks^[27][28]

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
12.	"Subway" (NOLA demo)	Yeah Yeah Yeahs	3:54
13.	"Wedding Song" (acoustic)	Yeah Yeah Yeahs	2:53
14.	"Despair" (acoustic)	Yeah Yeah Yeahs	5:00
15.	"Mosquito" (live from Area 52)	Yeah Yeah Yeahs	3:24
Total length:			62:42

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of the deluxe edition of Mosquito.^[29]

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 (tracks 1, 3, 5)
• Money Mark – keyboards (track 1)
• Dr. Octagon – vocals (track 8)
• Debra Barsha – choir vocal arrangement (tracks 1, 4)
• Michael McElroy – choir leader (tracks 1, 4)
• Danielle Chambers – choir (track 1)
• Shayna Cook – choir (track 1)
• Bradley Dean – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Laura Dean – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Tanesha Gray – choir (track 1)
• Lucia Giannetta – choir (track 1)
• Renee Goldsberry – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Danielle L. Greaves – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Marva Hicks – choir (track 1)
• Zonya Johnson – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Chelsea Krombach – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Adriane Lenox – choir (track 1)
• Lisa Lynne Mathis – choir (track 1)
• Travis Morin – choir (track 1)
• Jesse Nager – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• John Eric Parker – choir (track 1)
• Desiree Rodriguez – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Eliseo Roman – choir (tracks 1, 4)
• Michael Seelbach – choir (track 1)
• Virginia Woodruff – choir (track 1)

Technical

• Nick Launay – production (tracks 1–7, 9, 10); recording, engineering
• David Andrew Sitek – production (tracks 1–3, 5–7, 9–11); recording, engineering
• James Murphy – production (track 8); recording, engineering
• Sam Spiegel – production (track 8); recording, engineering
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – production (tracks 12–15)
• Nick Zinner – mixing (tracks 12, 14, 15)
• Wes Fontenot – mixing, engineering (track 12)
• Manuel Calderon – engineering (track 13); engineering assistance
• Abby Echiverri – mixing (track 14); engineering (track 14, 15)
• 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)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[30]	17
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[31]	44
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[32]	57
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[33]	120
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[34]	10
Croatian Albums (HDU)[35]	23
French Albums (SNEP)[36]	128
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[37]	63
Greek Albums (IFPI)[38]	27
Irish Albums (IRMA)[39]	8
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[40]	54
Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico)[41]	66
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[42]	24
Scottish Albums (OCC)[43]	8
South Korean Albums (Gaon)[44]	88
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[45]	76
UK Albums (OCC)[46]	9
US Billboard 200[47]	5
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[48]	2
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[49]	2

Release history

Release dates and formats for Mosquito

Region	Date	Format	Edition	Label	Ref(s)
Australia	April 12, 2013	CD digital download	Standard deluxe	Modular	[50][51][52][53]
Germany				Universal	[54][55][56][57]
		LP	Standard		[58]
United Kingdom	April 15, 2013	CD digital download	Standard deluxe	Polydor	[59][60][61][62]
		LP	Standard		[63]
United States	April 16, 2013	CD digital download	Standard deluxe	Dress Up Interscope	[64][65][66][67]
		LP	Standard		[68]
Canada		CD digital download	Deluxe	Universal	[69][70]
		LP digital download	Standard		[71][72]
Japan	April 17, 2013	CD			[28]
		Digital download	Standard deluxe		[73][74]