The Bird and the Bee’s Please Clap Your Hands EP -- four originals and a dreamy cover of the Bee Gees’ "How Deep Is Your Love" -- is clearly a stopgap as the band works on the follow-up to its sterling self-titled debut, released at the beginning of the year. These songs (well, probably not the cover) will inevitably figure prominently on the next full-length, which will come together once the band has time to write and record another handful of songs nearly as good as the ones here. Smart, fun, groovy, amusing and sexy, the only problem here is that it ends way before it feels like it should.   
 
Ostensibly, this EP is looking to capitalize on the opening track, "Polite Dance Song," which recently became the second Bird and the Bee song to be featured on Grey's Anatomy. And why not? It's one of the best songs I've heard all year. Singer Inara George coos with one of the purest pop voices in music today -- knowingly alluring yet naive and girly and sexy -- over a building groove with a steady, playful sense of rhythm. It’s as suited to sprinkling glitter on a collage as it is to getting down with someone.
 
There's nothing on Please Clap Your Hands that doesn't succeed on its own terms. It is without flaw, and it’s only drawback (and it’s a big one) is that it’s only five songs. But it shows that The Bird and The Bee is a very good band that knows where it's headed and is only getting better.

Band: http://thebirdandthebee.com
Label: http://bluenote.com
Audio: http://www.myspace.com/thebirdandthebee