Published on Apr 13, 2006
The second this album started to fill my bedroom with
its glorious sounds the sun suddenly came out and burst through my
window, just before my friend who had stopped by asked what the
hell I was listening to. However, after listening to this gem of an
album again and again, I have little doubt that this Brooklyn
five-piece has produced one of the better albums I’ve ever had the
privilege to hear.
The album opens with the band egging you on to clap
your hands. It isn’t long before you really want to. “Let the Cool
Goddess Rust Away” is the first proper song in this album and is
mind-blowingly good, even if I still don’t know what it’s about.
This track typifies what Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are all about —
interlocking guitar lines, neat yet not intrusive drumming, nasal
singing and damn good melodies. However, it’s the third track,
“Over and Over Again (Lost and Found),” that helped me to decide
that this band simply rocked. I simply cannot contemplate a proper
reason why this track hasn’t being getting more airplay. The band’s
singer — Alan Ounsworth — sounds like David Byrne during a nasty
trip to the dentist, a good thing indeed. Ounsworth’s vocals shine
through here and immediately take over the track.
In terms of lyrics, this band don’t cause much of a
stir. The imagery used throughout is baffling, and not in a poetic,
inspired fashion. At times, one wonders if they were just stuck for
words and decided to look in a dictionary and try make up (dodgy)
rhymes. Take this jumbled up piece from “In This Home Of Ice”: “I
don’t know how you can stand next to me / You talk like a noose /
And only confuse my perplexity.” Or there’s “The ravaged cabbage
drifts / on dark red skies.” It’s just very difficult to think even
CYHSY knew what they were on about when they penned these lyrics,
which is a shame considering the quality of the music and vocals.
It is worth noting that, despite me singling it out over its
lyrics, “In This Home Of Ice” is a wonderful song with a brilliant
melody and uplifting chorus.
The lyrics are the only complaint I have, though. The
bottom line is that this album is amazing. The musical
juxtaposition is probably the major selling point of CYHSY, with
the union displayed between the guitar lines being very impressive
indeed. Every single bar, from the opening tune to the final one,
is masterfully written.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is a refreshing
listen. They are a band on the verge of great things and this is an
album that, assuming there is some fairness left in the musical
domain, will find a place at the top of many a music fan’s CD
collection.