Music is an industry that is constantly evolving with technology, now more than ever. Forty years ago, putting out an album took weeks and weeks of being in the studio, recording and re-recording. Now you can click the record button on your Mac and be on Youtube in less than two minutes.
But go back six years and imagine a group of five young guys recording their self-titled debut album and instead of releasing it through a record label, putting it up on the internet. This was the case for indie rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and luckily, music bloggers fell in love with them.
Lead singer Alex Ounsworth’s voice is as distinctive as Bob Dylan’s, and even more unintelligible. His unique vocals definitely added to the success but their music spoke enough for themselves. Tracks such as “Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)” and “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth” blew up on the blogosphere. Now their next albums just had to live up to the hype.
Between 2005 and 2011, the band signed to Wichita Recordings, released a less-impressive follow up album and went on self-proclaimed hiatus before releasing their latest addition, Hysterical, which was self-released on September 20.
This album takes a much slower approach, and Ounsworth’s voice is actually lucid on some songs. The problem is, it doesn’t work.
Songs like “Is This Love?” from their first album are so great because the pop effects and fast-paced tempo work fantastically to get the heart pumping and dancing started. Hysterical steers away from the quick drum beats and goes for the “epic” approach with songs like “Adam’s Plane,” which includes classic piano and ballad-style singing.
“Maniac” is the one redeeming song on the album. It has synthy guitar, cool spaceship laser noises and a sick drum beat. This track is like those defibrillators that are used on doctor shows – it brings a welcome jolt to an otherwise lifeless album.
Props to the band for going back to their do-it-yourself roots for this album, but for the next record let’s pray that they’ll stick to what they know best – dance-y guitar riffs, garbled vocals, and burning bass. Otherwise they can say goodbye to applause and yea-sayer’s.
