Only Run

On the whole this is clever, electronically-infused rock that showcases Ounsworth’s songwriting chops.

The result is an album of beautiful juxtapositions, steeped with poetic gravitas that nonetheless never fails soar.

This notable progression with each release makes Only Run Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's most atmospherically accomplished album to date, boding well for the future of a band who could quite easily have stayed stuck in the mid-noughties indie rut.

Without the warm, human touch that made CYHSY’s previous releases so inviting, the ten (or really nine considering “Impossible Request” appears twice) tracks on Only Run feel cold and calculated.

Their most eccentric, diverse sounding record to date.

If Only Run proves anything, it’s that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are still making music on their own terms--they just have the budget and freedom to pull it off with a little more flash.

Only Run is an album that rarely seems overblown, even when the songs are big enough to fill a cathedral.

The band’s latest evolution is bound to shed some fans of the old lineup, but the music here is interesting enough to attract some new listeners as well.

While they’ve certainly sharpened some of the edges since Little Moments and brought their newfound gloom-and-synth-addled style to a more formidable shape, Only Run still suffers a significant lack of the sheer vibrancy and enthusiasm that made their off-kilter beginnings so invigorating.

Whilst materially an improvement on its predecessor, the move to electronica is superficial.

Like a child playing dress-up with their parents’ wardrobe, Only Run’s impulsive change-ups can result in some ill-fitting looks.... Fortunately, Only Run finally hits its stride in its more focussed second half, with Ounsworth and Greenhalgh strategically building upon simple ideas rather than trying to cram them together and see what happens.

For the first time ever, CYHSY is clearly not a full band playing in a room together; Ounsworth and drummer Sean Greenhalgh are the only two regulars here. But it also doesn’t sound like a freshly band-less songwriter trying not to sound band-less.

‘Blameless’ and ‘Little Moments’ marshal some nice glimmering synths, but Alec Ounsworth’s mewling vocal--while unquestionably distinctive--remains a bit of an odd proposition to achieve the requisite Everyman appeal.

The most optimistic light to view Only Run in is also the most condemning; it’s not so much a fully realized album as it is a promising blueprint for songs that haven’t yet been written.