Clap Your Hands Say Yeah "clean" version

After the year of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah hype that was 2005, the band's follow-up album has been met with an amazing amount of silence.

A few people have given it middle-of-the-road, three-star, B-minus reviews and a few people have slammed it. But mostly, for an album called "Some Loud Thunder," it's made barely a whimper.

Are you underwhelmed because it's not a major departure from their debut? What did you expect? This is STILL a new band. "Some Loud Thunder" does what a sophomore album should. It builds on the original with sharper music and lyrics and mines new territory without straying too far from home base.

Their self-produced, self-released, out-of-nowhere debut pushed the whole indie/DIY/blog business firmly into the mainstream. But it's clear from every interview that they weren't caught up in it. With Clap your Hands, you can come along for the ride but you don't get to backseat drive.

The band does address the hype on the opening, title track, as though getting it out of the way so they can get back to being Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. "All this talking, you'd think I'd have something to say," is singer Alec Ounsworth's opening line.

The song is filled with similar statements, but they're hard to notice because the track is intentionally mixed to sound like it's coming out of blown speakers. I can understand making a "don't try to change us" statement, especially right off, but there's a really great song underneath the fuzz.

I hunted down a "clean" version without all the distortion. Take a listen.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah — Some Loud Thunder ("clean" version) (MP3)