2014 was the year that Happyness made their breakthrough with their debut album, Weird Little Birthday, the one that earned them a considerable amount of critical acclaim, end-of-year list entries, millions of plays, awards (from NME), world tours and so on.
For their sophomore LP effort the band has signed to Moshi Moshi Records. The album will be called Write In and it is scheduled to be released on April 7th.
Singer/bassist Jon EE Allan who has also contributed the cover artwork, had to say about the new album: "I'd like to think this record looks outside the little American alt-rock sphere we were looking in on. I think we used to be very afraid of being earnest. And now we’re able to be tender or heartfelt without feeling too guilty about it. This record cost us about £500 to make, and that was mainly spent on an 8-track tape recorder and a dehumidifier. We self-produced it in our studio. The building's being redeveloped at the end of the year, so this is the last record we'll make there, which feels like the end of a chapter for us."
Falling Down, the first single from the new album comes with a fresh music video and it's a devious slow-burner that arouses thoughts of bands one would positively expect from Happyness, acts like Pavement or Yo La Tengo, but at the same time bears resemblance to some of the band's different sources of inspiration like Big Star's melancholy, Roxy Music's class and The Beach Boys' gentleness.
Watch below...
ZR