CD Reviews

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Some Loud Thunder | Self-released

By NICK SYLVESTER | February 20, 2007

2.0 Stars

YELPING CYHSY: return with a slightly less faceless, occasionally lovable follow-up to their Internet smash.

Too bad this Brooklyn-Philly-Boston indie act got tapped as early as they did for the Internet big leagues; had people realized Clap Your Hands’ debut was a faceless, occasionally lovable, by-no-means spectacular album, they might not be so violently disappointed with this slightly less faceless, occasionally lovable follow-up. I miss the jittery Talking Heads–type numbers that stood out on the debut. Thunder has just one but it’s good: “Satan Said Dance” is built off a sloppy death-disco beat and scattershot electronics and a hook with a nod in the direction of Jacko (“He says to me to shake around/And don’t stop till you hit the ground”). “Underwater (You and Me)” adds up to a tussled version of Love Affair’s “Everlasting Love,” which is good, and the song benefits from Flaming Lips collaborator Dave Fridmann’s production. The ballad “Yankee Go Home” has singer Alec Ounsworth caterwauling over swung stop-start verses, but after that the songs start running together till they’re not distinct tracks so much as guitars and bass and drums and yelpy indie vocals that happen to have been recorded at the same time.

Related: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | Hysterical, Upstate of mind, The year the music thrived, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Dave Fridmann, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Flaming Lips, More

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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "Love Song No. 7" (mp3)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "Underwater (You and Me)" (mp3)

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