For all intents and purposes,
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has always been the vision of lead singer/songwriter
Alec Ounsworth. However, with the departure of original drummer
Sean Greenhalgh after 2014's
Only Run,
CYHSY technically became the sole creative property of
Ounsworth. It is his voice, both literally and creatively, that permeates all of the band's fifth studio album, 2017's
The Tourist. Recorded, written, and performed by
Ounsworth alone, the album gains some semblance of collaborative continuity via the presence of
Mercury Rev's
Dave Fridmann, who mixed the album and who previously worked on
Only Run and the group's 2007 effort,
Some Loud Thunder. Primarily, you get the sense that
CYHSY's sanguine, intricately crafted sound has finally been boiled down to
Ounsworth's own singularly poetic, nasal-pitched aesthetic.