My disdain for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is nigh legendary. I didn’t believe their debut was the earth-shattering work of art everyone else did, and I thought it was crummy that they stole the spotlight when their pals The National tried to do them a favor and take them on tour opening for them, only to have the crowds skip out right after CYHSY’s set.
It annoyed me to no end that these guys were getting so much attention for what I felt was a sub par, at best, album. The only thing they had going for them, in my eyes, was that they showed the Majors that someone completely outside the system could still have a success sales-wise, and I thought that boded well for the future of D.I.Y.
In the world of music though, at least as far as i’m concerned, everyone gets another chance every time they release a new album. Even Kill Hannah gets a listen from me with every release, and the day they record something really good I’ll be more than happy to give them their due for doing so. It’s probably not going to happen, but there is always that possibility.
This brings us to CYHSY’s newest disc, the (again) self-released Some Loud Thunder. I put it in at work yesterday and gave it an honest listen. And I liked it. The über-distorto effect on the opening track, wherein all pushes are pushed blood red, seemed a little precious, as if the band was trying to play hard to get in that “we obscure our catchiest pop” sort of way but once I got past that I discovered that the band had indeed progressed. The album is by no means great, but it’s not the half-baked mess their debut was, so if Pitchfork were to award this a 6.8 I wouldn’t find myself arguing against it.
I still wish their lead singer would just let go of that David Byrne fetish, but at least this time it’s listenable.
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