Groovy Cellar - Happiness Lies Ahead

  by Cila Warncke

published: 8 / 7 / 2002

Label: Firestation Tower
Format: CDS

intro

"Inoffensive...but also totally unnecessary" slab of indie pop, with Smiths and Wedding Present influences, from German group, the Groovy Cellar

An unintentionally macabre exercise in musical formulaism, Germany’s the Groovy Cellar exhume British indie pop, and prop it up onstage for a twenty tearful minutes. 'The Happiness Lies Ahead' EP is a by-the-numbers guitar pop outing that is executed with admirable Teutonic precision. The title track is a brisk, strum-along affair that is cheery without being joyful, while the requisite sad song ('Take Me As I Am') features an irony-free use of the line “there is a light that never goes out.” When not ripping off the Smiths, the Groovy Cellar settle for sounding like a pastiche of several (very good but now defunct) bands – A House, the Catchers, and the Wedding Present to name a few. Inoffensive, yes, but also totally unnecessary.

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