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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Released in 2005 9.2/10 Styles Pop Post-rock Post-punk Song Highlights The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth Heavy Metal Gimme Some Salt |
Supposedly "this year's Arcade Fire," Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are the latest indie band to be swept up into the hype machine. Using The Arcade Fire as a reference point is suitable for more reasons than just the similarities in hype, though, as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sound a lot like an indie-pop counterpart to that group's indie-rock, complete with the heavily post-rock and post-punk influenced musical backing. This time, however, it's channeled predominantly through synth and light guitar for a more "poppy" result. At the time of writing this review, their self-titled debut has already started experiencing the obligatory anti-hype backlash, which is impressive for an album that still hasn't been reissued past its initial 2000 disc run (yes, I downloaded it, but I'm buying it the moment it hits the stores). Such a response feels pretty dubious, and only bolsters the suspicsion that any negativity is more than a little self-propelled, without much influence from the album itself, by people desperate to own an opinion about something. I feel quite lucky to have listened to it after reading little more than a brief synopsis or two (no reviews or messageboard posts) - for once I feel like I might be preceding the (anti) hype to some extent, rather than just being swept along in its wake (Funeral felt a bit like that). Ideally, questions like "Is this album any good?" shouldn't be any different before or after hype, but it's hard not to feel the effects of hundreds of glowingly positive reviews weighing down on you - and I feel pretty confident that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is going to be just that well received. I'll get the only major negative point out of the way first. The album opens with a jarringly noisy burst of circus-pop, with shouts of "Clap your hands!" echoing over the top, which I imagine many people will find completely irritating. It's a decent song, but it's easily my least favourite on the album, mostly because it sounds nothing at all like the other eleven tracks. I suppose it serves as a tolerable introduction, but I do seem to be starting the album on track 2 with almost every listen. Now, don't be deterred. This is one of very few missteps, and as second track "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away" opens with it's crunchy post-punk bassline and jingling tamborine, things start to sound awfully nice. Alec Ounsworth's vocals slot him neatly into the trend of vocalists with weird voices, with his nasal whine-sing showing enough variation to place him anywhere between Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips) and Win Butler (The Arcade Fire). Perhaps the vocalist he resembles most, however, is Thom Yorke. In fact, If Clap Your Hands Say Yeah opted for a darker, grittier sound, there's every chance they'd end up being labelled a Radiohead clone. His vocals are always in a near-drunken slur, and are frequently lacking the relevant consonants required to make them comprehensible, so you might find yourself consulting the lyric sheets a few times to figure out exactly what he's on about. His voice is bound to rub some listeners the wrong way, but it's so ridiculously emotive and downright fun that I can only manage to find it utterly endearing. Ignoring the opener, the first half of the album is remarkably solid and consistent, especially "Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away," "Lost and Found (Over and Over Again)" and "Details of the War." However, from halfway-marker "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" onwards, it's downright exceptional. On that song, and those which follow it, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah create some beautifully euphoric pop music, which is undeniably infectious. I think I listened to "Heavy Metal" (a song which, interestingly enough, is neither heavy nor metal) around ten times in a row before I finally managed to move on to the next track. The swaggering guitar riff on "Gimme Some Salt" is the sexiest thing on the album, complemented perfectly by Ounsworth's stumbling vocal foreplay. Even the minute-long twin-guitar instrumental "Blue Turning Grey" manages to be quietly charming to the last second. Closing track "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" sounds a bit like they're ripping off The Smiths, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable piece anyway, with Ounsworth's attempt at a Morrissey impersonation being suprisingly effective, while still not really sounding anything like Morrissey. By this point, I was so hooked that even his need to say the words "Child stars" thirty times in a row (yes, I counted) couldn't deter me. Try not to let the hype put you off, because Clap Your Hands Say Yeah really is an excellent album. It's a highly emotional, incredibly catchy piece of indie-pop, and is a welcome addition to the ever growing list of my favourite albums of the year. Apparently David Bowie himself is even a big fan, so they can't be too bad, can they? |