Happy As You Like - Happy As You Like

 

Another Subjangle triumph! I love The Happy Somethings. Their brand of irreverent jaunty 80s Indie Pop is a joy to listen to. So I was always going to be interested in the solo album from Happy, who is one third of the band as Happy As You Like is indeed him.

This is wonderfully different album. More serious in feel than his band, his vocal is fragile at times, so fragile that it might break. The sound is very late 60s to early 70s, almost folk at times, more than a little hippy, more than a little Bolan in Tyrannosaurus Rex mode.

There are variations, for instance Leaves Must Fall is superb Psych Pop, bordering on Toytown. Fall For Love is very 80s, but a million miles away from what The Happy Something do, at times it even gets a little bit Prog.

Little Wonders is all 60s Bacharach smooch and Dovetail Joint plants a foot in Americana, but is built on a wonderfully inventive gentle arrangement. Driver plays that vocal fragility to the max, yet Yo Yo Yo is splendid Psych.

The template though is the ace Pastoral Folk Pop, a bit like Martin Newell, if he paid more attention to a song instrumentally instead of wallowing in Lo Fi. In Another World is the song that best demonstrates this, but there is also sprinklings of The Happy Something's wit.

Now We Know is the best example of this and gets very close to Indie Pop, but the Baroque arrangement takes it beyond that. Solid Ground is melancholic and moody and adds another tick. All in All, Happy As You Like It is a tour de force and something that every home should have.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can find out more about The Happy Somethings here.

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