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. "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."

Promotion
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.

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".

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.

Accolades
Mosquito was ranked number 30 on NMEs "50 Best Albums of 2013" list and number 40 on Vices "Top 50 Albums of 2013" list.

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 (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