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Music Review - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
- 4 out of 5
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
- Reviewed by Stephen Swift
- When I first got hooked to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the only place I could get their debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, was through the band's Web site. I listened to the two tracks available, "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" and "Over and Over Again (Lost & Found)," over and over again waiting for the mail. Now the peppy indie-pop goodness is available on iTunes.
  
  Lead singer Alec Ounsworth has been compared to David Byrne of Talking Heads and Jeff Mangum from Neutral Milk Hotel. To me he conjures the image of a ringleader conducting a crowd or circus. Singing, proclaiming, or slipping the lyrics into the melody it's hard to say. Whatever it is...it's mesmerizing.
  
  If you're trying to decide whether to buy the album, I wouldn't start with the first track. The calliope, tambourine, and clapping take the listener one route whereas the majority of songs are in a very different dimension. Not that I would ever pass it up. As the title track, it fits in perfectly with the album's playful spirit.
  
  Recommended Listening: Download the MP3s available from the band's Web site, "Is This Home On Ice," "Is This Love?"
  - Stephen Swift

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LaurieF rated this album :

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3464 posts, TMO Forum Mod , send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:45 pm

I've got it on back-order and, like you, I've only heard the two tracks on the website. They're on my iPod and I keep on handing over my ear-buds (yuck - sharing earwax!) and making people listen.

I don't know Neutral Milk Hotel (a good name, but nowhere as good a name as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah); but to me they sound like David Byrnes with a Dunedin-sound Flying Nun band (Chills, Verlaines, Tall Dwarfs). Nobody else sounds quite like them, but they remind me of all the great indie bands of yore.

I think they're great, and I can't wait for the CD to turn up.

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