Exorcising 2005: Maarts' finest 50 albums:

50. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

This certainly was the year rambling pop took over. The Arcade Fire (one of my fave albums of last year and not appearing in this list because of that), The Wolf Parade, Broken Social Scene and The National set a pretty good template and this album followed in the footsteps without imitating too much of the music. These almost out-of tune shouty vocals gave many albums this demo-ish character which for some reason easily passed everyone's taste-test as long as it was part of some infectious musical background. And that's what this band has done.
After it's carnival-style opening, shouting 'away we go', away we go indeed. It's not all a smooth ride though as the band sometimes maintains their puberal humour throughout (some of the songtitles are naff and some tracks feel like ineffectual interludes) but there's an honest undertone amongst all the fun and good melodies on the surface. Notably songs like Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away, The Skin Of My Country Yellow Teeth and highlight In This Home Of Ice have a good hookline where the vocal lines do match the chugging guitars and NewOrderian basslines pretty neatly and somehow manage not to get too much on my nerves. That's a pretty good way of convincing me to play the album again and again, which is what happened this year and why it's propping up my list.