Happyness - Write In

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 8 / 5 / 2017

---

Happyness are a three-piece band from South London who made great waves with their debut album ‘Weird Little Birthday’. Their debut output was firmly rooted in the US college rock style harking back to the post-grunge days and found them making fans across the pond in the US as well as being very well received in their native UK, where they notably received the NME award for Lyric of the Year in 2015. ‘Write In’ is Happyness' follow-up and seems to have come around quickly mainly due to their 2016 EP ‘Tunnel Vision On You’ bridging that gap. There is development and an added maturity to ‘Write In’, which is sure to please many of their original fans. If ‘Weird Little Birthday’ was the soundtrack to the fuzzy warm, not-leaving-your-bed kind of day that follows after a heavy, life-affirming, wild night, then 'Write In' is the soundtrack to being outside in the sun and carefree and loved up. Album opener ‘Falling Down’ begins with a serious tone but this quickly lightens up with its Pavement meets Lemonheads sound. ‘The Reel Starts’ has a fantastic Beatles feel to it with a swooning chorus transition that really hammers home how the band has grown into their own when it comes to song writing, ‘Through Windows’ also shares this development with gentle key changes and layered vocals throughout. ‘Anytime’ and ‘Bigger Glass Less Full’ have more of a playful Pavement/Yo La Tengo vibe to them and there is even a smidgen of surf rock evident on the sublime ‘Uptrend /Style Raids’. These songs all help with the momentum and flow of the album, without losing the direction. This is very much an uplifting but mellow album and the songs are impeccably woven together to make it feel very complete and self-contained. There is an unmistakable Teenage Fanclub feel to ‘The C Is A B A G’ and ‘Anna, Lisa Calls’ which sees the band making the most of their ‘fluid’ roles within the band. I really enjoyed ‘Weird Little Birthday’ but the only negative that stuck out was the Americanised sounding vocals, which, while at one level sounding fantastic, somehow didn’t seem right once I had learnt that the band are from the London area. On ‘Write In’ the band sound like they have, however, found their own voice and this really lifts it in my humble and nit-picking opinion.

Track Listing:-

1 Falling Down
2 The Reel Starts Again
3 Anytime
4 Through Windows
5 Uptrend / Style Raids
6 Bigger Glass Less Full
7 Victor Lazarro's Heart
8 Anna, Lisa Calls
9 The C Is A B A G
10 Tunnel Vision On Your Part

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/Happynessmusic
http://happynessuk.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/Happynessmusic

Post A Comment

---

Comment

Name

your name

Location

ie London, UK

Submit

Check box to submit

Adam Coxon
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson

Dixie Ernill
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart

Malcolm Carter
Marie Hazelwood
Mark Rowland
Nick Dent-Robinson
Nicky Crewe
Nige Nudds
Philamonjaro
Richard Lewis
Shirley Procter
Spencer Robertshaw
Steev Burgess
Steve Kinrade

Steve Miles
Tommy Gunnarsson
Zena Grieg