Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Lyricist: Alec Ounsworth.
Recording information: Fireproof Recording, Brooklyn, NY; Machines With Magnets, Providence, RI.
One of 2005's most lauded indie rock releases, the self-titled, self-released debut by Brooklyn's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is an engaging and energetic album that pulls listeners into its charming world where things sound instantly familiar, yet strangely indescribable and unique. The neo-vaudeville intro ("Clap Your Hands!") carries a percussive Tom Waits vibe, but is distinguished by frontman Alec Ounsworth's David Byrne-like yelp. While the Byrne vocal comparisons are inescapable, Ounsworth, the band's main songwriter, isn't intent on recreating the Talking Heads' sound--it's just one aspect of many in the group's restless aesthetic. The record really kicks in with the one-two punch of the surging "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away" and the chiming "Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)," while "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" is its gloriously uplifting centerpiece. Throughout the disc, keyboards drift in and out of the highly rhythmic, guitar-driven tunes, creating a playfully urgent atmosphere that gives credence to the album's remarkably warm reception.