Review Text
What are we to make of the world? In many ways, the title New Fragility perfectly sums up our collective state of unease and anxiety, but it's particularly apt for singer songwriter Alec Ounsworth AKA Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the trauma he's spent the best part of three years processing. "It's pretty personal, " says Ounsworth. "It's about what I think we're all experiencing at the moment, certainly here in the United States anyway - trying to move forward amidst an almost cruel uncertainty." Taken from the David Foster Wallace short story 'Forever Overheard', from the collection Brief Interviews With Hideous Men - "You have grown into a new fragility, " says the story's adolescent narrator - the title track documents what happens directly after a long relationship comes to an end, and what's discovered soon after. "There comes a period of making up for lost time in a changed world, " says Ounsworth, "and now is a time of predictable stupidity." "I never want to take another chance on anyone", Ounsworth laments over a steady chug of muted guitar chords, delicate piano, and bustling drums. "I can't believe the things I do to myself". It's a song that takes a long, hard look at itself in the mirror and doles out some uncomfortable truths. Yet it also showcases what Ounsworth has become so masterful at - couching a certain level of seriousness in something fun. Something danceable. It's what's powered some of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's most memorable moments, and what makes New Fragility such an accomplished, affecting record. Powerful too, taking aim at what Ounsworth calls "the failed democratic experiment that is the United States of America" and the supine hypocrisy of those currently in government. The first singles taken from New Fragility, the double A-side of 'Hesitating Nation' and 'Thousand Oaks', are deeply political, charting the decline of a nation. On the former, over quietly picked guitar and static chords, Ounsworth decrys state-sponsored pollution and the ubiquity of advertising, bemoaning our always on, always hustling culture. But it's 'Thousand Oaks', written in response to the fatal mass shooting at the Borderline Bar And Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, on November 7, 2018, where Ounworth's anger reaches fever pitch. "I was watching an interview with Susan Orfanos, who lost her son, " says Ounsworth. "It was difficult to watch, and left me heartbroken for her and infuriated that so little has been done about gun control in the United States. The tragedy of this case is also that this particular shooting seemed almost 'forgettable', insofar as so many people have become inured and apathetic to such events." The soaring chorus and the melodic chug of Ounsworth's guitar provide a stark contrast to lines that drip with fury and rage. New Fragility is not without moments of beauty though. 'Innocent Weight', the first time Ounsworth has employed a string quartet, is a fragile, plaintive ballad that frames the dissolution of a relationship in heart-breaking terms ("I don't know what I've done wrong"). Ditto the wondrously sad 'Mirror Song', which combines piano and toy piano to great effect, and deconstructs the pressure of touring, the perils of self-medication, and questioning one's motives for pursuing music as a career. "The guilt about having so much opportunity but feeling empty inside is not easy to reconcile, " explains Ounsworth. "I'm mostly over it now." Trace the arc of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's evolution and it shows an accomplished musician and composer sounding ever more confident, constantly refining and broadening his sound and indulging an ever wider set of influences. Few have been as consistently brilliant, eclectic, and intimate; fewer still have done so while being defiantly, 100% independent, refusing to sign deals that compromise artistic vision. New Fragility is a continuation of this, yet it also stands apart as one his strongest collection of songs yet. Personal yet universal, New
