Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical

(V2/Co-op)

Brooklyn’s CYHSY were trailblazers for the internet-savvy, straight-to-fans DIY indie generation with their self-titled, self-released 2005 debut album. After a cool response to 2007’s Some Loud Thunder and a four year-interim during which various solo and side-projects were hatched, rumour had it the band was splitting; Hysterical puts paid to that, though it’s not the galvanizing comeback they could use.

All splashy disco beats, floaty synth-strings and wounded puppy yelping from Alec Ounsworth, opener ‘Some Hysterical’ is an instantly catchy song, but like much else here sounds like a slightly desperate attempt to get back to homespun, Arcade-Fire-on-laughing-gas first LP basics, with added hi-fi sheen – a chalk and cheese kind of mix. CYHSY’s natural magic may sadly have dissipated the moment they stopped being everyone’s little secret.