The self-titled debut album from New York’s own Clap Your Hands Say Yeah opens with a song called Clap Your Hands and a circus organ. The chorus consists of a demented ring leader shouting “Clap your hands” and a drunk Greek choir answering “But I feel so lonely.” By George, I think we’ve stumbled on a motif.
If there are two themes that run through CYHSY’s messy and brilliant debut, it’s those two. Joy and alienation. CYHSY are like a host of other bands creeping out of the east coast that approximate the musical landscape of Britain circa 1983. They bring something else to the table though. Unlike some of their contemporaries *cough, The Bravery, cough* they do more than just imitate Ian Curtis dead pan voice or the Edge’s echo laden guitar. They use these bands as a starting point for their own wild creation.
Over And Over Again (Lost And Found) begins with basic drum beat and a killer bass melody ripped straight from Peter Hook’s “How To Play Bass 101.” Than lead singer Alec Ounsworth enters the song with a voice straight out of any choir teachers worst nightmare. It’s a cracked near falsetto drawl that when mixed with the music sounds like Neil Young right about the time of After The Gold Rush listening to Power, Corruption And Lies on repeat.
Nowhere is this more evident than on The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth where the band builds from an analog synth line to a full fledged dance rave up, while Ounsworth tells the tale of a man who moved from West Virginia to New York and feels the judging eyes of everyone there. It’s one of those rare songs that will tug on your heartstrings even as your feet get up to move.
As far as lyrics go, I’ll be honest. I can’t understand what they hell Ounsworth is saying most of the time (something about a cabbage) but that doesn’t seem to matter. CYHSY know what the greats of dance rock (read New Order) also know. Nobody can dance to a lecture. On the albums best cut, In This Home On Ice, the song sways and swells with rolling keyboards and glistening guitars and there is a point where the lyrics explain not only the song but the band itself. “Now that I’m sick and not quite right/ I can dance all night.”
As a side note. The band has no record label. It wrote, recorded, produced and released the record all on it’s own. If I remember correctly, the album has sold almost 50,000 copies through various websites. Suck on that corporate America.
