I remember at Reading Festival the name Clap Your Hands Say Yeah providing me and my friends with endless entertainment, I am not sure if this is my immature side or the rather obscene amounts of alcohol I had consumed by the time the band graced the Radio 1 stage. Whichever it is I remember walking away from tent being in 2 minds about whether I loved or hated this band. This new album ‘Some Loud Thunder’ has not really clarified the situation. It is the kind of album that fluctuates, not only in my like or dislike for it but in their approach to the music.
First and title track ‘Some Loud Thunder’ has a somewhat unfinished quality to it, there’s a raw, crackily background. Next track ‘Emily Jean Stock’ is grandiose and astutely produced. The alternative approaches are even more evident when hearing track 4 Love Song No. 7 – an eerie and creeping love song. Track 5 ‘Satan Said Dance’ an energetic crowd pleaser (see single review) and then filler track 6 ‘Upon Encountering the Crippled Elephant’ – (brilliant name for a track) it sounds like the band use an accordion. But each one quite different.
Having said that there are 2 signature CYHSY themes that appear in almost every song; the inclusion of random instrumental ‘bits’, whether it’s a drum solo, a computerised interlude or an off key guitar riff they sound like they don’t belong and could almost be a mistake, but somehow work. Then there are the steady and omnipresent vocals from lead singer Alec Ounsworth; I am sure most people love the haunting tones, but I just can’t quite find it appealing.
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It’s difficult for me to say how I feel about CYHSY, I do love some of the tracks, their incredibly Pixie-ish sounding tones (‘Yankee Go Home’) are smooth and inviting, the charismatic plink plonk juxtaposed with a beautiful piano and a slow burning rousing in style of drums make ‘Goodbye To Mother Cove’ a perfect example of the bands appeal. But in certain tracks smooth and inviting becomes dull and meandering like ‘Arm and Hammer’ and ‘Underwater (You and Me)’
In all the album is a subject that could be debated, and like my crowd of friends at Reading some will love it, some will hate it and some like me will sit squarely on the fence!
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