Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 23/01/06
Label: Wichita

"You look like David Bowie. But you've nothing new to show me." So states "Over And Over Again" one of many highlights from the debut Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album. As rock'n'roll lyrics go, these have the potential to take on a gravity way beyond a smart name-drop for art-rock's most revered figure. That the band then follow the Bowie reference with a dismissive swipe at what we assume are their peers further amps up the excitement. Could they, we wonder, really be this good?

Well, people have been saying as much for months. "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah" has been in circulation since last year. Indeed, any sonic fashionista gasping for the latest fix could conceivably have been listening to this record as far back as June. Recorded with no label support, shifting thousands across the USA on a budget of approximately 12 bucks, it's only been the virtually unprecedented, near Biblical emergence of Arctic Monkeys that's pushed CYHSY into the relative shadows.

Without wishing to court controversy for the sake of it, for some this LP will prove to be a more fulfilling record than the debut from the Arctic iceberg. An unlikely claim, perhaps, and one that clearly takes some justification, but this is a very, very good record. And should you feel the magnetic pull of thrusting and rattling, shot and blue art-rock, glistening with the iconic traditions of NYC, above, say, a drunken shag in the toilet of a Wetherspoons pub, you'll get the point.

Both the Monkeys and these five Brooklynites rely hugely on the relative merits of their frontmen and Alex Turner is unlikely to be matched by anyone, anywhere, anytime soon. CYHSY's Alec Ounsworth, meanwhile, flaps rather vaguely, incoherently in the shadows of such staple-gun wit. For much of this record, puzzling imagery dominates, hitting the bulls-eye only on occasion. That these lines are delivered in wild modulating vocal streams and hiccups will also probably horror many.

This would, however, be foolish. Because Ounsworth's take on David Byrne's damaged howl brings further drama to songs that are so pop they explode upon leaving the speakers. Recalling alternative figureheads from both the UK - Belle & Sebastian and Teenage Fanclub - and the US - Television, Talking Heads and The Velvet Underground - CYHSY fling open the doors to their particular carnival with a disorientating soap box intro. Although a little annoying, this is a fitting, almost conceptual, introduction to what follows.

Dropping straight into "Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away" - all tambourines, marauding bass and juddering Velvets' guitars - before the sublime "Over And Over Again" - wiry melodic hypnosis and Ounsworth's escalating confusion - there's little filler on this record. At its best - the accelerating, rolling guitars of "The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth" and a frazzled, forlorn "Is This Home On Ice" - CYSHY most definitely offer an addictive, shimmering and, crucially, precious and soulful counterpoint to the riot van rabble-rousing of 2006's main rock infatuation.

David Bowie was recently spotted at an Arctic Monkeys gig in New York. You can only hope he's already witnessed what Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have to show him.

    by Ben Gilbert