Some Loud Thunder

by

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah debuted with winning, chirrupy melodies that were catchy and easy to recall.

Be warned: Now they are serious, and their music reflects that. Their sophomore album "Some Loud Thunder" is a massive departure musically, to the point where Clap Your Hands Say Yeah only sometimes sound like the same band -- full of distorted rippling guitar and mellotron.

They open with the fuzzed-out, clattery title track, with jangly guitars and loads of distortion. "All this talking/You'd think I'd have something to say/But I'm just talking/Like a siren getting louder and farther away," Alec Ounsworth yowls over the appropriately thunderous tune.

The change in their sound comes in after the second song, with trembling indie-rockers, ominous piano tunes full of dark atmosphere, sputtery trickly headtrips, slow-moving accordion songs, fragmented guitarpop, and rippling cycles of soft guitar and gentle bells.

There are a couple songs that harken back to their old sound -- the marching, dreamlike "Underwater (You and Me)," and the disorienting "Emily Jean Stock," which is basically a twee ballad riddled with bursts of ominous bass and percussion. It's just too confusing.

"Some Loud Thunder" is actually quite an enjoyable album, for the most part. The new, eerier sound is sure to be controversial, but the darker, more complex, less catchy sound is quite entrancing. At times it's confusing, but you can sort a twining melody out of the fuzz, mad piano and scratchy synth.

In fact, given listens and an open mind, these twirling melodies of jangly, circular guitar, murky piano, bells, mellotron, distorted synth and heavy fuzz become rather charming. It's a more mature, intricate sound, sort of like Mercury Rev having a bad dream about an evil circus. They've lost that sunny sweetness, and have gained a weirder indierock sound often associated with bands like the Fiery Furnaces.

But it also has some drawbacks -- the more acoustic-guitar/bass heavy songs are awkward and uncertain, and the charming "Emily Jean Stock" is marred by some droning bass that actually drowns Ounsworth out completely. It sounds like they're struggling to find a sound in these songs.

Ounsworth's yowly voice sounds more or less the same, although he sometimes seems to be fading away into the wash of complex melodies. And the songs have some awkward moments ("My face is green/But my feet are still going if you know what I mean") but far more charming ones ("When you're foreign bound/I am the coin in your pocket...").

Those expecting the catchy, bright charm of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut will definitely be disappointed, but "Some Loud Thunder's" darker, elusive sound is intriguing as well.

Let me begin by saying that I love clap your hands say yeah. I traveled to switzerland last summer just to hear them live at the Montreux Jazz Festival... and they were everything I had hoped they would be. Wild, almost unhinged vocals, compliments of Alec Ounsworth, random sounds and spastic flourishes flying all over the place...it was great.

Except for one part.

The band sort of calmed down and began a piece that was slow and seemed very... rough. I assumed they were just fiddling around. Plunking at strings there. A few drum beats there. Lines that seemed almost made up as they went. It meandered around and then they just seemed to give up. The crowd wasn't going nuts like they had been doing for almost an hour solid. Alec looked at the drummer who seemed to shrug. Then they launched into "Skin of my yellow country teeth" and the crowd went wild. The band went wild. It was a strange moment that I had assumed was just a fluke, live show sort of thing. Imagine my surprise when I learned that moment had a name.

"Arm and Hammer"

Yes, listening to CYHSY I was shocked to hear the very song that had grinded the band (and audience) to a halt was included on this album. Which helps me to understand why this album doesn't need 5 stars..or even seem to want it.

I came to love CYHSY in, i would assume, the same way almost everyone did. You listened the first time with one eyebrow cocked. You felt there was something there. So you listened more. The music, the energy, it all began to gestate and you grew attached...it was as if the energy expended to find and love this album made it specifically yours. like it was little genius child you grew protective of it, even combative for it. You knew you had something odd and special and smart and you loved it.

But, like all children, this one grew. And, like most genius kids, grew thinking it was a little more mature, a little more saavy, than it really was. The childlike imagination that had meshed so well with the brilliance was giving way to a feeling of self importance and ability. Basically, this precocious, intelligent child was developing into one of those brainy preteens who thinks they know everything and that whatever they do is above average. Let's face it...no one likes those type of people except us...their surrogate parents (who, lets face, are probably a little blind to the warts and flaws).

So the good news is that Clap your hands really is smart. They really are talented (wildly so). They really do make good music. They just need to grow into the new phase of their existence. Not every song is great on this album. Maybe half is the brilliance of their previous effort. But it'll evolve. Soon they'll be genius adults, who can look back on the imagination that made their first album great, and combine it with all the real world experience they're obtaining. When that happens, it'll blow minds. It'll be as meaningful as it is innovative.

Until that happens (and it will) I'll just keep smiling as the awkward teenage phase plays itself out.