As lauded as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled debut has been, the simple fact of the matter remains that it isn’t as complete a debut as the likes of Canada’s Arcade Fire’s Funeral, nor Scottish group My Latest Novel’s Wolves. Instead, it feels very much like it has been created at a time when the band themselves were a work in progress.

There is very little doubt that it’s a fine release, with a couple of clearly outstanding moments. But comparisons to Talking Heads’ 77 are short-sighted and in many ways utterly ridiculous. That album became a zeitgeist, spawning a million and one followers, of which Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are clearly another if the songs and tonality of vocalist/songwriter Alec Ounsworth are anything to go by.

When it’s good, though, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is a very, very good album – the supple bass of “Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away” is flexible and warm, giving way to the innate grooves of “Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)” quite quickly and simply. Indeed, if one thing stands out about this album it is that it does all flow together very nicely.

Interludes like “Sunshine and Clouds (and Everything Proud)” and “Blue Turning Grey” feel unnecessary to some degree however, reducing the sparkle found on the likes of “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth”, with its naggingly memorable guitar hook, and the wicked “Gimme Some Salt” to some degree. But these moments are simply sublime, indicating just how good Clap Your Hands Say Yeah may become in the future.

Pieced together slowly and independently, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sounds very much like it is – a bare-bones introduction to a band who were still finding their feet when they recorded it. Since its initial release independently, the band have signed their lives away, toured and toured (then toured some more), and now have plans to record the follow-up with Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, the Flaming Lips). This is when the genius of this interesting act might fully announce itself best.