It’s not hard to work out why so much of the 90’s has been written off as unworthy of remembrance.
The period that saw Generation X goof off on authority and made heroes of Jay and Silent Bob was never up to much in the eyes of the man; for many authority figures the notion of Kurt Cobain as a role model was something to be very afraid of.
That era’s music owed much to numbness and a desire to escape, the awful consequences of Reganomics and Thatcherism slowly unravelling into mistrust and confusion. Fuzzy and at times oddly sentimental, if often (m)hugged the listener whilst trying to defy stereotypes; Beck, Eels and Dinosaur Jr. all making stuff for underdogs, slackers and dipso kids who simply refused to GET WITH THE PROGRAMME and conform.
On first listen to ‘Weird Little Birthday‘ it’s hard to escape the impression of it being made by some kids from a Rust Belt town on the verge of nowhere, but Happyness are in fact a trio from South London. That singer Benji Compston affects an American accented drawl is the kind of choice which many might hold against him, but once the listener has discarded their prejudices they’ll realise that it’s an act not without redemption.
Compston also plays guitar and along with bassist Johnny Allan and drummer Ash Cooper has ended up rejecting the straitjacket of cookie cutting indie pop as propagated by The Libertines et al. Inspired primarily by the frazzled alt country of bands like Sparklehorse, their début album is a collection of largely scuzzed up mid-tempo songs which aim more for the heart than the head. They also verge on the playfully dark – sample titles include ‘Regan’s Lost Weekend (Porno Queen)‘ and ‘Great Minds Think Alike, All Brains Taste The Same‘ – but any malevolence is on a strictly moody teenager basis.
As with many bands of the era they’re in thrall to, the spectre of grunge lurks in the background. ‘Anything I Do Is Alright‘ is a near perfect facsimile of the stuff which made the first Grohl/Foo Fighters album such an escape from the nihilism of the form: distortion pedals, feedback and crunchy riffs sure, but wisely there’s also an angelic, bitter sweet chorus as well. It’s a little regrettable that this seems like a one-off burst of endorphins, as the rest of ‘Weird Little Birthday’s 13 songs are mostly played at nodding off speed.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a tangle of little joys to discover here. Opener ‘Baby Jesus (Jelly Boy)‘ has a fragility to its guitar and Compston’s voice that hardly prepares people for the line, “I’m a motherfucking birthday boy/Don’t steal my thunder baby Jesus”. Provocative to some, these muddling juxtapositions are Mark Oliver Everett‘s stock in trade and on ‘Pumpkin Noir‘ the melancholic piano and distorted vocals recreate his perforated soul to almost tribute levels.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that at the time for every Lisa Simpson there was a Beavis, and on ‘Refrigerate Her‘ the Dahmer-isms are stretched too thin and head for pastiche territory. On the plus side, it’s barely long enough at eighty seconds to be more than a minor irritant. Conversely. the trio are equally as capable of beauty in an unconventional sense, the slightly pot-headed drift of ‘Lofts‘ and ‘It’s On You‘s with its skewed take on Tom Petty showing that for all their supposed misanthropy, Happyness are at their core a band whose songwriting principals are far more upright than at first they seem.
Mangling the past is harder to do, even the bits that now fly underneath everyone’s radar. Happyness are far more wholesome than a fridge full of entrails, and better for you as well.
