“Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

"Maps" is the heartbreaker on Fever to Tell, the 2003 debut from New York's Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and it became the band's signature song. Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase wrote it, and Dave Sitek produced it with the band. Polydor put it out as a single in Britain in September 2003, with Interscope taking it to America in February 2004.

It's built on a looped guitar riff from Zinner that circles and circles, with Chase's drums building patiently underneath, while Karen O drops her guard completely. The words came out of her turbulent relationship with her boyfriend of the time, and her voice sounds raw and exposed. Paul Mahajan recorded it, and Alan Moulder and Zinner mixed it.

It won praise for its emotional weight and for how vulnerable she sounds, and it gave the band their highest placings on the Billboard Hot 100, at 87, and on Modern Rock Tracks, at 9, while reaching the UK top 40. Patrick Daughters shot the video with the band in a gymnasium; MTV played it constantly, it spread online, and it picked up four nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards. It stands as a cornerstone of the decade's garage rock and post-punk revivals, and a song other artists keep covering and remixing.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.