If there was ever a time for Happyness, this is it. The indie band’s third album, Floatr, is a meticulously crafted work that sticks to their winsome, Nineties-influenced slacker-rock while sounding freshly liberated after two years described as “the best and worst” time of their lives.
Now that drummer (and new co-frontman) Ash Kenazi has come out and fully embraced his persona as a pink ballgown-wearing drag queen, he and Jon EE Allan revel in looser song structures and oddball lyricism. The sun-drenched guitar melodies that made their debut, Weird Little Birthday, shine so brightly are still here; scattered showers of percussion and capricious bass lines add textures that were previously missing. The piano that emerges from warped feedback on “When I’m Far Away (From You)” is a beautiful revelation.
Much of the appeal of Happyness is how they find meaning in the mundane. “A vegetable/ is counting the days/ but it’s all a spectrum/ invading the space,” Allan sings on the single “Vegetable”, vocals muffled as though he’s spitting out a mouthful of earth. It’s a song about getting back on your feet, regardless of how many times you’ve been knocked down.
Through the record there’s a clear desire to understand what motivates us to get through the everyday ennui. Curious images bubble to the surface then disappear with a shift in tempo: accidents, relationships ending, people walking out on other lives. Allan and Kenazi document this destruction with a kind of wry curiosity but also joy, apparently having realised that sometimes happiness comes from ripping things up and starting again.
