I’ve got 52,146 songs in iTunes, so for me the best source of undiscovered musical pleasures is shuffle, which often uncovers songs I’ve never heard before. Such is the case with my favorite song of the hour, “No You Can’t Take Them,” by The Clouds. (Free MP3!)

The Clouds aren’t really a group — they’re a project of an Indiana artist named Stuart Hyatt who, in 2004, traveled to York, Alabama and decided to turn the mostly black town of 2,800 into one big band, bringing random citizens into the studio to record what he called “avant gospel.”

You’ll hear the classic elements of Irwin Chusid-style outsider music, plus a lovely sort of light, airy pop tone. The vocals are a line of kids describing the things most important to them, a list that includes an uncle, a clarinet, a chicken, and a cell phone. (The lyrics are the town’s sixth graders’ responses when asked what they would want to take to a desert island.) But the scene stealer is whoever sings the chorus, which starts out each time with a gloriously nasal, helium-filled “Noooooooo!”

Basically, this song is like a big hug, from the 1974 cast of The Electric Company.

You can download the entire album (via eMusic) here or (via iTunes) here. More on the project here. More on Hyatt’s other projects (like “Shrimp Attack!”) here.

14 December 2007

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