The second album from Brooklyn-based indie rock quintet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is likely to divide opinion, as the involvement of producer Dave Fridmann has prompted the band to move away from the chaotic-but-catchy stylings of their acclaimed 2005 debut towards a more experimental sound.
Fridmann’s approach is perhaps best described as “idiosyncratic”. Despite having made his name producing leftfield records of considerable brilliance (such as Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs and Mogwai’s Come On Die Young), he has been known to go to the other extreme and heap praise upon albums like Janet Jackson’s Velvet Rope, a record described by at least one erstwhile Fridmann collaborator, Mogwai bassist Dominic Aitchison, as “shite”. Luckily, to this writer’s ears anyway, Fridmann’s unique aesthetics have merged impressively with CYHSY’s, to produce an occasionally oblique but ultimately highly rewarding album.
Some Loud Thunder covers an impressive stylistic breadth without ever losing the band’s identity. The opening title-track is abrasive indie rock which, particularly in frontman Alec Ounsworth’s Frank Black-style vocal performance, calls to mind The Pixies. The following ‘Emily Jean Stock’ is a twisted acoustic number with all manner of sonic detonations going off in the background, while the wonderfully titled ‘Mama, Won’t You Keep Them Castles In The Air Burning’ is psychedelia by way of early Neil Young (whose ‘Helpless’ the band have been known to cover in concert).
Sandwiched either side of the instrumental accordion waltz ‘Upon Encountering The Crippled Elephant’ (CYHSY have obviously inherited Mogwai’s penchant for bizarre song titles) are two of the album’s best tracks; the thumping punk-disco work-out ‘Satan Said Dance’ and the woozy electronica piece ’Goodbye To Mother And The Cove’, which is reminiscent of Bowie’s Low.
The closing ‘Five Easy Pieces’, meanwhile, is a spirited piece of acoustica featuring slide guitar, a cracking bass line and spiralling, echoing vocals, and goes some way to capturing the rebellious, youthful spirit of the movie of the same name.