"Y Control" is a single by

Yeah Yeah Yeahs The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are comp ...

, from their debut album ''

Fever to Tell ''Fever to Tell'' is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 29, 2003, by Interscope Records. It was produced by David Andrew Sitek and mixed by Alan Moulder. Four singles were issued, the first being ...

''. The name of the song refers to the emotional control of a female, referring to the male

Y chromosome The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes ( allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or a ...

, and can also be read as a reference to Prince's 1995 song "Pussy Control," which is frequently abbreviated as "P Control." The song's music video was controversial for its disturbing imagery; nonetheless, it received some play on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and its sister station,

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to shift its programmin ...

. The song is part of the soundtrack of the 2009 video game

Dirt 2 ''Colin McRae: Dirt 2'' (stylised as ''Colin McRae: DiRT 2'') is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters in 2009, first for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360, and then later for PC platform ...

Critical reception

The song was met with universal acclaim upon its release, with many critics noting it as one of the album's highlights.

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

listed "Y Control" as the 213th best song of the decade.

Music video

The music video for "Y Control", directed by

Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

, was controversial for its images of children carrying the body of a dead dog,

giving the middle finger In Western culture, "the finger", or the middle finger (as in giving someone the (middle) finger, the bird or flipping someone off) is an obscene hand gesture. The gesture communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent i ...

, and a subtitled portrayal of child mutilation including the chopping of a boy's hand and another boy

disembowel Disembowelment or evisceration is the removal of some or all of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract (the bowels, or viscera), usually through a horizontal incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment may result from an accident ...

ing himself with a knife.

and

agreed to air the video; however, they included a disclaimer from Jonze at the beginning, and blurred out some of the video's more offensive material. The unedited version is available on their "

Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow ''Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow'' is a music DVD released by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on October 25, 2004, through Polydor. The main feature of the DVD is the band's live performance at The Fillmore in San Francisco on March 17, 2004, with bonus so ...

" DVD.

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

gave a negative review of the video, describing the video as "a sort of fairy tale gone wrong," and calling it "amateurish." It was put into rotation on

and

Commercial performance

The song reached number 54 on the UK Singles chart. It was the least successful single from "Fever to Tell."

Charts

Track listing

#"Y Control" #"Y Control" (

The Faint The Faint is an American indie rock band. Formed in Omaha, Nebraska, the band consists of Todd Fink, Graham Ulicny, Dapose and Clark Baechle. The Faint was originally known as Norman Bailer and included Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes, with who ...

remix) #"Y Control" (Live at the Fillmore)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2004 singles Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs Music videos directed by Spike Jonze 2003 songs Interscope Records singles Songs written by Karen O Songs written by Brian Chase Songs written by Nick Zinner