The album Karen O listens to more than any other
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs helped to define that iconic early 2000s New York City indie scene alongside the likes of The Strokes, TV on the Radio and Interpol. They were formed at the turn of the millennium by singer and pianist Karen Lee Orzolek (better known as Karen O), guitarist and keyboard player Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase.
The musician was born in the capital of South Korea, Seoul, to a Korean mother and a Polish father. The family eventually relocated to New Jersey, which is where O would grow up and find her early tastes in music, leading to her forming The Yeah Yeah Yeahs at age 20.
Amongst all of the music that the singer admires, there is one that sticks out in her mind. In an interview about her favourite music with The Guardian, O explained that Nina Simone’s 1962 album Nina Simone at the Village Gate is the most that she listens to more than any other.
The record was Simone’s third live album that she recorded for the Colpix record label, recorded at a nightclub in Greenwich Village in New York City called The Village Gate. The record is particularly important as it saw Simone experimenting with folk songs and those with African themes in the early part of her career.
Discussing Simone’s album and her profound love for it, O said, “I got this during my first year of college in Oberlin, Ohio. I pulled it out of a record bin because I liked the cover. When I listened to it the first time, I was confused because I didn’t know whether it was a man or a woman singing. The second time, I cried because ‘He Was Too Good to Me’ was the most painful song I had ever heard.“
Opening up on that song in particular, O noted, “It’s about losing the best person you’ll ever have. I have a lump in my throat just thinking about it because the way she sings that song is without a doubt coming from personal experience.” She added, “It’s a record I’ve been spinning since I was 17 and will continue to spin until I’m crapping in a diaper.”
Elsewhere, O also has a fondness for the likes of the Grateful Dead and their 1970 album Workingman’s Dead, as it “soundtracked my teenage years”, as well as classic records by Neutral Milk Hotel, the Birthday Party and Moses Sumney.
