For south Londoners Happyness, nothing is ever quite straightforward.
Their début album ‘Weird Little Birthday‘ sounded like it was weaned on the teat of Generation X’s slacker rawk and went to sleep every night hugging a VHS copy of Clerks, yet they’re as British as curry itself. This dichotomy seemed to initially confuse people, but in fact the record was something of a grower, in places naïve and child-like, elsewhere employing big hooks and just the right levels of heft, adjacent but unrelated to the work of, for instance, Hooton Tennis Club.
With their follow up in progress, the trio are now teasing us with the five tracks of ‘Tunnel Vision On Your Part‘ having been picked up by the Moshi Moshi label. Not everything is new – the doe-eyed ‘SB’s Truck‘ escaped to undeservedly minimal fanfare in May – but there are signs of change, that a broader range of influences are being employed and, although it might appear to go against the grain, some ambition.
Escaping a micro-niche isn’t straightforward, but on the titular closer the threesome appear to have set course for the heart of the sun with its pastoral C&W organ, half asleep drawl and gently weeping guitars. This is still an outfit that likes to throw a curve ball though; the breathy, mock-jazztastic wisp of ‘Surfer Girl‘ is an unlikely wooing tune for the Betty of their desire, whilst they re-confirm their love of uber-cult 80’s American indie band Club Gaga via a cover of ‘Friend Of The Revolution‘ – with the original version scoured from even the Internet’s darkest recesses, theirs is effectively an original and sees them at their most clipped and direct.
Back to that getting out of the toilet circuit quick thing though; opener ‘Anna, Lisa Calls‘ could do the trick, harmonies and ba ba ba’s grabbed from Teenage Fanclub‘s stock of sixties-pillaging wholesomeness, a song the band have described as “a Travelling Wilbury’s thing” that is thankfully anything but.
Part of a whole that is firmly in between stations, this EP’s intent might be followed up on or Happyness might choose to stay in a diffident paddling pool they’re rapidly making their own.
The good news for them is that it’s a choice they never looked having before.
(Andy Peterson)
