The song was released as the lead single from the band's debut album Youth on January 14, 2013, but did not chart until it featured in a Bose advertising campaign later that year.

[2] Paul Brown, founder and managing editor of TV Ad Music, described "Thunder Clatter" as "a catchy piece of tropical indiepop".

[1] Consequence of Sound's Alex Young called it a "frenzied composition" with "the right ingredients for dancing" and listed it as one of two essential tracks on the album Youth.

[4] Young noted that the song's "prevailing lyrical themes, which surface through the guitar, the bass, and the claps, are loud and clear: 'I hear it all in the center of my heart / You're the love of my life.

[5] A live in-studio video of "Thunder Clatter", which runs four minutes and fifty seconds,[6] features band members Keegan DeWitt, Jeremy Bullock, Dabney Morris, Harry West and Eric Wilson at a raucous get-together: they "just invite some friends over to theirs, drink lots of wine and then film it.