Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

One of 2005's most lauded indie rock releases, the self-titled, self-released debut by Brooklyn's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is an engaging and energetic album that pulls listeners into its charming world where things sound instantly familiar, yet strangely indescribable and unique. The neo-vaudeville intro ("Clap Your Hands!") carries a percussive Tom Waits vibe, but is distinguished by frontman Alec Ounsworth's David Byrne-like yelp. While the Byrne vocal comparisons are inescapable, Ounsworth, the band's main songwriter, isn't intent on recreating the Talking Heads' sound--it's just one aspect of many in the group's restless aesthetic. The record really kicks in with the one-two punch of the surging "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away" and the chiming "Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)," while "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" is its gloriously uplifting centerpiece. Throughout the disc, keyboards drift in and out of the highly rhythmic, guitar-driven tunes, creating a playfully urgent atmosphere that gives credence to the album's remarkably warm reception.
(RS)

The Charlatans - Between 10th and 11th

Combining the retro-psychedelia of the Stone Roses with a large dose of The Doors' swirling keyboard-based sensibility, the Charlatans UK had an initially swift and painless rise to fame. Rocky times lay ahead however, including the mental illness of their bass player and the departure of their guitarist. Compounding these setbacks was the commercial disappointment of the otherwise outstanding Between 10th and 11th. Despite its lack of contemporary commercial success, this album contains the beginnings of a musical maturity and depth. More guitar-based than usual, Between 10th and 11th embraces a loose, jamming tradition not usually found in post '70s British pop, shown to greatest effect on "The End of Everything." The album has a harder edge than previous efforts, as if the band were trying to stay one step ahead of their demons. Unfortunately they'd soon suffer more setbacks when integral member and keyboard player Rob Collins would be arrested for armed robbery; a few years later he was killed driving drunk from a pub to the studio.
(RS)

Patrick Wolf - Lycanthropy

Patrick Wolf has no insecurities about his last name, identity, and supposed upbringing among animals. In fact, Lycanthropy (the belief that one is a wolf) begins with a wolf's howl. None of this, however, should detract from his formative compositions. This debut is relentlessly resourceful, never failing to reveal a new instrument (accordion, violin, recorder, to name a few). Augmented by laptop, Wolf's curious stories come to fruition with his accent-thick vocals and dark, biographical lyrics. After (what else?) "Wolf Song" secures roots in his Irish blood, he explores inner conflicts of war and peace ("Peter Pan" and "A Boy Like Me," his most accessible track), a newfound life in Paris (the percussion-heavy "Paris"), gender ("Lycanthropy"), and child molestation ("The Childcatcher"). Known to keep a bird's nest in his hair, this young, eccentric prodigy is well beyond his years, making the most from a completely unusual childhood.
(FTP)

Razorlight - Razorlight

Razorlight: Johnny Borrell (vocals, guitars); Bjorn Agren (guitar); Carl Dalemo (electric bass); Andy Burrows (drums). Following up on the momentum of its hit U.K. debut, UP ALL NIGHT, Razorlight issued its self-titled sophomore album in 2006, unveiling another strikingly assured set of energetic Britpop. With an upbeat, straightforward approach marked by shimmering, anthemic guitar lines and driving rhythms, Razorlight, led by the gleefully self-absorbed singer Johnny Borrell, reinforced its lauded status with supremely catchy, post-punk-inspired tunes such as the jaunty "In the Morning" and the playfully titled R.E.M. nod "Pop Song 2006."
(RS)

Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights

Combining the insistent drone of Joy Division with the dreamy melodies of the Chameleons, the fire of Mission of Burma, and an occasional jagged edge a la The Fall, the foursome inconceivably manage to defy anachronism on their debut full-length Turn On the Bright Lights . Just how they do it is indefinable, perhaps it's just a trick of the light, or the life that breathes gloomily, radiantly throughout, but it's undeniable. Vocals which fall somewhere between Ian Curtis's plaintive, edge-of-oblivion wail and the winking, laconic drawl of James's Tim Booth, ripping uncompromisingly through unpredictable, unforgettable lamentations from the reflective ("NYC") to the imploring ("PDA"). When the darkly etched, implosive, mournful lyrics poke out as they do on the unrelenting "Obstacle 1" ("she puts the weights into my little heart and she gets in my room and she tears it apart"), the hook is set for an important debut by a band that portends to be around a while.The stunning debut album that incorporates so many postpunk influences: Joy Division, Television, Morrissey, . Includes the bonus track "Specialist".
(FTP)

Beck - Guerolito

On 2005's well-received Guero, Beck succeeded in fluidly incorporating most of his musical personas--rhyme-ready rocker, wistful folk troubadour, funky white boy, etc. Later in the year, Beck released Guerolito, a track-by-track reinterpretation of the former record featuring remixes by various peers and admirers. The 14-track outing, which also includes the frenetic non-album song "Clap Hands," begins with Homelife's "Ghost Range," a radical reworking of "E-Pro" that replaces a straightforward rock vibe with busy, burbling layers of added instrumentation, including cellos and violas. Longtime Beck friends Air and Adrock (of the Beastie Boys) also offer up winning contributions, with the former transforming "Missing" into the dreamy, synth-heavy "Heaven Hammer" and the latter tweaking "Black Tambourine" into the dub-like "Shake Shake Tambourine." Other highlights include Boards of Canada's shimmering take on "Broken Drum" and Diplo's "Wish Coin," which turns the bluesy "Go It Alone" into a shuffling dance track. While this dynamic disc stays true to Beck's adventurous aesthetic, it also takes his songs down intriguing (and sometimes unlikely) back roads, making it as fascinating and enjoyable as the original album.
(RS)

Kasabian - Empire

On its second full-length, the U.K. band Kasabian is at its most effective when it sticks close to Mickie Most-inspired pop gems like the title track and the monolithically rocking "Shoot the Runner" (the latter of which, perhaps uniquely in the modern rock canon, conjures elements of both the Fall and of Deep Purple). The Ecstasy-gobbling ghost of Madchester hovers over the swaying "By My Side," while the hurtling hallucinogenic high of "Aponea" is the realistic-sounding aural manifestation of a cracking night's clubbing. No wonder singer Tom Meighan sounds fashionably exhausted on the pretty, reflective "British Legion," which, with its mood of post-party ennui, is nostalgically reminiscent of mid-period Kinks.
(RS)