Clap Clap Riot Essentials

Auckland’s Clap Clap Riot excel at the casually anthemic, as heard on urgent early singles like 2008’s “Don’t Want Your Baby” and the chanted group vocals and, yes, handclaps of 2011’s garage-roughened “Everyone’s Asleep.” As a band leader, singer/guitarist Stephen Heard can communicate headstrong swagger as ably as he can saucer-eyed vulnerability. He’s also content to step into the appropriately stormy saturation of 2018’s “All About the Weather” and take some of the focus off himself. Even as Clap Clap Riot cruised past the decade mark together, Heard and his bandmates continued to instill a jittery sense of anxiety into world-weary tunes like 2017’s “Tired of Getting Old.” That’s also made loud and clear on 2021’s driving “It’s Alright,” on which Heard admits that he’s panicking about what’s yet to come instead of just enjoying the moment. Over a noisy verve that recalls the Ramones as much as The Strokes, he once again turns his private anxieties into shareable acts of catharsis.