They may look like a bunch of college drop-outs, shuffling lazily on stage with their faded lumberjack shirts and bad haircuts, but Clap Your Hands Say Yeah never bunked a class.

The Brooklyn five-piece dabble in the kind of clever-clever intelli-pop exemplified by Radiohead and much loved by smart, middle-class kids who couldn't escape those parentally-enforced piano lessons.

It's no wonder they were bigged up by ultra-pretentious American music website Pitchfork.com, which requires a Thesaurus to read and Ivy League education to understand.

The problem is that Radiohead have Tom Yorke's extraordinary voice to complement their inventive sounds, while CYHSY certainly don't.

Lead singer Alec Ounsworth sounds like Bob Dylan with a bit of vocal coaching. His nasal twang can hold a tune but frequently flutters between the pleasantly bearable and the insufferably annoying.

Admittedly, his band's songs are full of punchy, new-wave moments and danceable drumbeats. Mostly, though, the wellcrafted tunes lost their way and blended into a bland soup of jarring guitars and squalling synths.

They tried stirring things up with a bit of funk and electro but it's as if CYHSY would rather concentrate on long, sweeping musical essays when all that's required is a poppy Post-It note.

All this could be ignored if the band were electric on stage but there was more energy generated by the pink balloons they had floating behind them.

Clap your hands say hmmm.