Feature

Jukebox

(Photo: Courtesy of Steve Double/Big Hassle)

Some Loud Thunder
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Follow-up from the Brooklynites whose debut was such a surprise success that many who purchased the album online received a copy mailed personally by a member of the distributor-less band.

PETER: The band’s go-to move is to pair a wall of sound with oddly miked, oddly phrased vocals that sound like David Byrne standing way back from the microphone and shouting. That’s intellectually interesting, but viscerally, it’s a little dull.
Rating: 6
Best Track: "Underwater (You and Me)"

JOS: I liked CYHSY’s first album a lot: It reminded me of the Violent Femmes in the way they used acoustic dissonance and energetic singing to make exciting songs without a lot of instrumentation. The new album is closer to the Flaming Lips than the Femmes on the Indie Rock Scale of Production Polish, but the more-elaborate melodies and electronic details amplify the energy rather than drown it out.
Rating: 8
Best Track: "Emily Jean Stock"

SARAH: During the first track, the kids and I are wincing. One of them wraps a beanbag around his head. It sounds like Lou Reed playing with the Violent Femmes at a high-school party, and I have to turn it off. “This is one of the big new bands of the last year,” I tell them, but they’re not having it. “Why doesn’t a new band have to be good to get popular?” one of them asks.
Rating: 3
Best Track: "Underwater (You and Me)"