Happyness - Write In

Rating:

'Write In''s post-grunge is instantly enjoyable.

Happyness were definitely born in the wrong era. Purveyors of post-grunge, their take on slacker rock has earn them the sort of plaudits that most bands would consider enviable - heck, even certified pop-culture legend David Lynch is a fan.

If debut ‘Weird Little Birthday’ was an invite to their oddball world, then ‘Write In’ is the fall down the rabbit hole. Self-recorded once more, its post-grunge is instantly enjoyable - sprawling opener ‘Falling Down’ recalls Real Estate by way of Pavement, a meandering melody that displays a serious fascination with its own shoes. Benji Compston’s twenty-a-day vocal kicks in as nonchalant as ever - despite hailing from London, their sound is still very much hazy LA.

‘The Reel Starts Again [Man As Ostrich]' and ‘Uptrend_Style Raids’ are as trippy as their titles would suggest, the latter possessing a Norwegian-Wood worthy staircase of a guitar melody that leaves you feeling a little dizzy but undeniably blissed out at the impending ’new wave’.

With the majority of the tracks clocking in at five-minute plus, ‘Anna.Lisa Calls’ is probably the most college-radio-friendly thing they’ve done, the tale of a cool-girl with mesmerising powers that renders Compston unable to ‘hardly recollect my point at all’. For a band who’ve often struggled to be truly heartfelt, ‘Write In’ feels like an encouraging step forward into three-dimensionality. Jenessa Williams