Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
by Betsy Ellison
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has been getting a lot of hype lately, and it hasn’t been unjustified. The first song on the album, "Clap Your Hands!" has a carnival atmosphere, and it isn’t a good way to open the album, but every other song on the album more than makes up for it. This isn’t an album of singles where each song is easy to pull apart and dissect on it’s own. It’s an album that is more about a feeling, an ambiance. It’s an album that you can listen to for the first time and you know you’ll be listening to it for a long, long time.
Alec Ounsworth’s voice has a warbling, nasally quality to it. While that sounds like a bad thing, it most assuredly isn’t. He has been compared to Hamilton Leithauser of the Walkmen, and while they have some similarities, Ounsworth’s are better.
This entire album, save the first song, feels very big and open. It’s loud when it needs to be, soft when it needs to be, and everything else in between. It’s a great album with only a few low points. And it is one of the top albums of the year. |
