Yeah Yeah Yeahs have announced the release of their new live album, ‘Hidden In Pieces Live At The Royal Albert Hall’.
The album is available to stream now, with an expanded digital edition, as well as vinyl and CD versions, set to follow on October 23. Fans can pre-order those here. The first 250 vinyl orders will also receive a photograph signed by all three band members.
‘Hidden In Pieces Live At The Royal Albert Hall’ primarily draws from the band’s two nights at the London venue in June last year, alongside recordings captured in San Diego, Chicago and New York during their intimate 25th-anniversary theatre tour.
Announcing the release, Karen O has said the tour “was born out of a need to commune with our band and fan family in 2025, after the election”.
“In the past, YYYs haven’t often chosen when to be back at it and out there, it often chooses us,” she continued. “It, being the times. We turn to live music when we need that specific quality of depth and light to see us through the times.”
“The stakes were high, the Royal Albert Hall was the third play of the tour,” O explained. “Most of this record is live from the hall. It was our first time performing there and the hype leading up to it was overwhelming, but ladies and gentleman, we believe the hype now we’ve done it.
“The pipe organ moment in ‘Skeletons’ was no less than immaculate vibrations. We felt the spirits of all legends past swirling around us. Nick remarked that he felt as though his fingers were guided on the guitar neck.
“The real alchemy happened when we played the hall, it clicked into place. All the shows we performed on this small tour were extraordinarily vulnerable. We hope that translates.”
The record features strings, piano and double bass across reimagined versions of songs spanning the band’s catalogue, including ‘Maps’, ‘Gold Lion’, ‘Zero’, ‘Cheated Hearts’ and ‘Spitting Off The Edge Of The World’.
It also includes their cover of Björk’s ‘Hyperballad’ and opens with ‘In Heaven’, the song from Eraserhead written by Peter Ivers and David Lynch.
“Thanks also to David Lynch for his everything,” O said. “His passing came a month before we began this journey and the performance begins with an ode to his legacy.”
‘Hidden In Pieces Live At The Royal Albert Hall’ tracklist:
‘In Heaven’
‘Blacktop’
‘Gold Lion’
‘Hyperballad’
‘Cheated Hearts’
‘Isis’
‘Warrior’
‘Skeletons’
‘Runaway’
‘Spitting Off The Edge Of The World’
‘Mars’
‘Maps’
‘Zero’
‘Y Control’ (Live in San Diego)
‘Let Me Know’ (Live in San Diego)
‘Hysteric’ (Live at the Beacon Theatre)
‘Despair’ (Live at the Chicago Theatre)
‘Little Shadows’ (Live in San Diego)
A 22-minute black-and-white visual companion titled Hidden In Pieces has also been released on the Criterion Channel. Directed by Barnaby Clay, the film was recorded at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles during the tour and captures the reworked material in an intimate live setting.
The ‘Hidden In Pieces’ tour was first announced in March 2025, with the band promising rarely performed songs and established favourites presented with new arrangements.
When the run opened in Riverside, California, Yeah Yeah Yeahs gave ‘Little Shadow’ its live debut and performed ‘Mars’ and ‘Let Me Know’ alongside their cover of ‘Hyperballad’.
Their most recent studio album remains 2022’s ‘Cool It Down’, which marked their first full-length release in nine years. In a four-star review, NME described it as “a creative testament to how refreshing it can be for bands to look forward instead of backwards”.
