We Love Handclaps: "Finer Feelings" by Spoon

Cover illustration of Spectrum 4, a science fiction anthology edited by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest, 1966

It's no surprising to hear handclaps in a Spoon song - the band's stripped-down sound has long been based strictly on the interface between drummer/producer Jim Eno's always-interesting drum/percussion arrangements and Britt Daniel's gruff vocals and slashing guitar-playing. "Finer Feelings" has one of the more ambitiously full arrangements from Spoon's 2007 album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, incorporating oddball samples, an ambient field-recording section in the middle, an extended outro, and a variety of percussion sounds, including handclaps.

What's interesting about the handclaps in this particular Spoon song is the use of the punctuating quick-double-clap at certain key points. This kind of clap is commonly known as the "disco clap", and (needless to say) you don't hear a lot of disco claps in indie-rock songs. It sounds pretty good to me here, though, even if I'm iffy on other aspects of "Finer Feelings" - for me, it never quite broke into the top tier of songs from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, like "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" and "Black Like Me".

"Finer Feelings" by Spoon