Pitchfork Media gave Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s debut album a 9.0. It’s time to get off my ass and pick it up.
Clap Your Hands are a five-piece from Brooklyn who’re known to break out both harp and harmonica. They’ve recently been garnering rave press in their home city, and, over just the past two weeks, burning up the internet like a vintage Lohan nipslip. The pundits are saying Wilco (not hearing it), Talking Heads (okay), and Neutral Milk Hotel (getting warmer), but if it checks in with a number of modern and classic new wave referents, the music sings for itself: Clap Your Hands traffics in melodic, exuberant indie rock that pairs the shimmering, wafting feel of Yo La Tengo with a singular vocal presence that sounds like Paul Banks attempting to yodel through Jeff Mangum’s throat. Or imagine the Arcade Fire if their music were more fun-loving and less grave.
