Some Loud What?

I had a scary moment a couple days ago. I put on my newly acquired copy of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's "Some Loud Thunder," their highly anticipated follow up to the wildly successful self-titled 2005 debut. I posted up a track about a week ago, proclaiming everything that had leaked from the album at that point to be brilliant.

Back to the scary moment...

If you're reading this, you probably have already heard the first track from the album... The track titled "Some Loud Thunder." Well, when it came on, I thought my JBL's that have treated me so well over the years had blown out.

Then the second track, "Emily Jean Stock," came on.

What the fuck?

I was hoping that I just had a bad copy or something, but alas, the track is up on the band's myspace, and it sounds exactly the same.

Who told them that this was a good idea? It makes an otherwise awesome track nearly unlistenable. I like bands trying to be progressive, innovative, and revolutionary, but this was a serious misstep. Don't let anyone, inevitable ridiculous pitchfork review included, tell you otherwise.

Remember that post we had about good production making the Band of Horses album come alive? (Now you do...) Well, production can have the opposite effect as well.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Some Loud Thunder (Live)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Some Loud Thunder (Album Version)

The live version is directly from the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Architecture in Helsinki, and Takka Takka 2006 Tour EP (Limited to 1,500 copies). The live version shows so much promise. It's a great song; well written and catchy. I think that, with the right production, Some Loud Thunder could have been one of my favorite tracks of 07.

Oh well, the rest of the album seems to be good enough to overlook the first track (I think I said the same thing when their first album came out...)

Here's a little something extra you might enjoy:

Architecture in Helsinki- It's 5! (Live)
Takka Takka- They Built You Up Too Fast (Live)

Both from the 2006 tour EP that I mentioned earlier.