- Record Label: [self-released]
- Release Date: Jan 30, 2007
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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UrbCYHSY seem to have set out to make their "important" sophomore record... which is only truly important if you believe that songs gain weight at the hand of bulbous studio wankage (they don't) and that unnecessarily inflated melodrama equals more fun (it doesn't). [Jan/Feb 2007, p.76]
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Alternative PressSome Loud Thunder isn't without its successes--but it is defined by its failures. [Feb 2007, p.114]
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Perhaps it’s too easy to blame Fridmann for these new distractions, but I can’t imagine Ounsworth and the band leaping ahead this way without him. Here’s to hoping that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah move backward more lithely than they progress.
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Whatever it lacks in straightforward pop tunes, this album makes up for in rich, multilayered weirdness.
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Under The RadarIt isn't awful... However, neither does Thunder deliver the lightning strike that would effectively mute the onslaught of a backlash. [#16, p.90]
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The band... haven't leapt off in a new direction but have capitalised on the tension between Oundsworth's spiralling, just-about-to-fall-over vocals and the driving, zealous music that stops him from metaphorically sailing away into the ether.
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Not every track is a winner, but fans of their brash debut will still find a lot to enjoy here.
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Entertainment WeeklyThe giddy art-school anthems of their last album are largely submerged in a cauldron of studio-induced sonic goo. [2 Feb 2007, p.123]
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Q MagazineThough the results are less homemade-sounding than their debut, a mood of playful experimentation is evident throughout. [Feb 2007, p.99]
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Some Loud Thunder is a mixed bag of spectacular material and hodge-podge studio doodles.
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Flaws aside, "Some Loud Thunder" is a highly original and weirdly accomplished work worth hearing.
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If Some Loud Thunder isn't as consistent as the debut, it's an adequate follow-up that contains a handful of fantastic songs, a handful of uneven ones, and a handful of duds.
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Ounsworth's impassioned delivery is gone throughout most of Some Loud Thunder, replaced by what can only be described as vague indifference.
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The New York TimesClap Your Hands Say Yeah demands a new, irksome level of indulgence on "Some Loud Thunder." But it finds a new richness in the songs it doesn’t sabotage. [29 Jan 2007]
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Replacing the kitschy DIY aesthetic with intentional roughness and bloating each nook and cranny with some sort of sound, what’s emphasized is its production, not its songwriting.... At the same time, however, it’s the production that makes the album somewhat interesting.
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UncutA flawed but fascinating follow-up. [Feb 2007, p.85]
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MojoIt's too mixed a bag of highlights and lowlights to be lovable. [Feb 2007, p.100]
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This album is too much of a mess to be seen as a worthy follow-up to such a great debut.
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SpinThis set of songs recaptures much of their original nonchalant magic. [Feb 2007, p.86]
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There's definitely an unfinished and tentative feel here.
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Building on the shaky, disjointed, but strangely beautiful foundations that they first laid twelve months ago with the release of their debut, 'Some Loud Thunder' is a gloriously shambolic second album from a band that continues to sound like no one else.
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Clearly the band and producer Dave Fridmann have a vision for Some Loud Thunder, so it's a shame their ambition only rarely translates into music that approaches the album's compelling predecessor.
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[Fridmann's] atmospheric flourishes have always been heavy handed, but here they muddle tightly conceived pop tunes that would've sounded better scrappy.
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An entirely satisfying sophomore effort.
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Some Loud Thunder is a partial success. When it shines, it shines brightly and showcases a skill at crafting - when they have the balls to carry their ideas through - insanely catchy left-of-centre quirk pop a la Talking Heads.
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Less energetic and more all-over-the-place, it's ramshackle rock full of drones and jangles that crest and hum, with Alec Ounsworth splashing his warbly David Byrne alto around like cheap paint.
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At their best, on Yankee Go Home and Five Easy Pieces, their sound becomes less indie rock than ecstatic chanting.
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If there is a problem with Some Loud Thunder it is the album’s lack of consistency.
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It's worth giving it a second (or third) listen.
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New Musical Express (NME)There's the odd good song... but these are rare moments from a band wallowing in coarse experimentalism. [20 Jan 2007, p.31]
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BlenderSome Loud Thunder is certainly uncompromising--which isn't the same thing as "good," although it's got a handful of very good moments. [Mar 2007, p.131]
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This time around, no celebratory hand gestures are required.
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Despite some missteps (sadly, a few egregious ones), Some Loud Thunder is successful in displaying the group’s breadth of talent and ideas.
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The songs start running together till they’re not distinct tracks so much as guitars and bass and drums and yelpy indie vocals that happen to have been recorded at the same time.
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An original and exquisite album full of playful and energetic indie-rock that, while retaining some of the same qualities as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, is also a step in a new direction that suits the band fine.
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The band’s weakness may well be that it has become comfortable in its awkward and uncomfortable sound.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 50 out of 74
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Mixed: 19 out of 74
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Negative: 5 out of 74
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JuanPabloCHMar 16, 2007
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Oct 5, 2012
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JasonLMay 9, 2007