Instant hype often does more to hurt a band than to help. One of the unavoidable indie-rock successes of the last couple of years is the Brooklyn-via-Philadelphia quintet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. When their hook-laden, self-released debut caught widespread attention in the summer of 2005, it became a rare instance of the press following Internet hype to cover something they’d altogether missed. Despite its quick rise, the band has chosen to keep faith in its grassroots methods.

Though CYHSY’s second album, “Some Loud Thunder,” won’t be in stores until January 30, the band has already made it available for download and stream on its Web site. As if to defy all speculation about its latent mainstream ambitions and musical luck, the group’s sophomore album is surprisingly good — more mature than the debut — but most surprising of all, Clap Your Hands has done it again without an American record deal.

This is not to say, however, that they’ve done it all by themselves. This time around, the band tapped the considerable studio skills of former Mercury Rev member and veteran producer David Fridmann, who has worked with the Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney, among many others. This was a good choice. While Mr. Fridmann’s touch is audible throughout — and unmistakable in some places, as on “Underwater (You and Me),” a Flaming Lips song in both mood and melody — the songs taken together and compared to those on CYHSY’s debut are fuller, cleaner, and more developed as ideas.

As a result, it is less important now what influences the band is channeling (they’ve alternately been tethered to the Talking Heads, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Modest Mouse), because those sounds have been more incorporated than on their debut. And though there isn’t a song on this album as immediately infectious as the combination of bass drum, synthesizer buzz, and Modest Mouse-styled guitar work that came together in “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth,” the 11 songs on “Some Loud Thunder” make for a solid pop album.

Singer Alec Ounsworth has drawn a fair amount of derision for his warbling, off-key croon and indecipherable lyrics, but here he has outgrown the trick and spends less of his vocal energy on sounding “bad” and more on sounding right, given his abilities. Even at his most marred, when, on a piano ballad titled “Love Song No. 7,” Mr. Ounsworth attempts to sound like Steven Tyler circa 1973, one can still make out part of the opening line: “Now that you’re here and see everyone, one of us seems to …” The rest of the song seems to be about being alone and being safe, but one has to imagine.

Sentence-long titles are popular in indie rock these days. “Mama, Won’t You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning?” is the third track on “Some Loud Thunder,” and one of the best. It opens with a quiet lattice of guitar strums and synthesizer, building as Mr. Ounsworth enters with tambourines to sing, “Things at night as you would have them / I’m no man and you’re no woman.” The song builds as it oscillates between these more energetic sections of vocals, drums, and bass, and its quieter, tinseled parts, to great effect.

Almost every track on “Some Loud Thunder” shares the same polished combination of guitars, drums, and synthesizers, but decorates them with quirky noises. This band’s sound has been described as unconventional, but in fact it is quite traditional. The group’s best stunt remains its ability to sell sturdy indie pop songs under the posture of edgy experimentations.

For example, “Satan Said Dance,” the most party-ready song on the album, opens with pulsing bass and drums, around which a smattering of noise nuggets spiral for 30 seconds; the piano comes in just before the voice, followed by the guitar, which plays simple notes to the rhythm. The song remains a well-crafted dance tune, but the free-form feedback and bridge, coupled with stray sounds throughout and Mr. Ounsworth’s unusual voice repeating “Satan” over and over, lend a taste of eccentricity. It doesn’t detract from the overall success of the music because it all gels as a complete sound.

Less than two years ago this band had everyone smiling, clapping, and saying “yeah” like trained seals. Now that we are prepared for CYHSY’s return, we can greet them with less awe concerning their business savvy and eccentric pop and simply enjoy what they have to offer.