Happiness Is Easy

Misc. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 3, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Badman Recording Co.
• ASIN: B001P5Q6K2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,781 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Such a Pleasant Surprise, April 7, 2009

By 

Murakami (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happiness Is Easy (Audio CD)

Judging by the acts on his Badman label, one would assume Dylan Magierek to be a renaissance man. He has signed folk-rock, electro-pop and whatever the hell you call My Morning Jacket to the Portland label. And Happiness is Easy, the latest release from Magierek's own musical venture, Misc., confirms Magierek's broad musical taste.

As the project's name would imply, there's a mixtape quality to the tracks on Happiness is Easy. It's something the listener notices just a few minutes into the record. The disc's opening tune, "Temporary Residence," is a closing-credits atmospheric instrumental fueled by a repeated burst of delay pedal guitar feedback hauntingly reminiscent of the memorable riff from Elastica's "Connection." The next song, "In a Studio of Keepsakes," takes a left turn: It's a haunting, bassy waltz driven by Tim Mooney's drum fills and the free-poetry verses of pure-throated L.A. singer-songwriter Daniel Ahearn, who appears on half of the album's 10 songs.

The problem with mixtape-style albums isn't their diversity, it's their delivery: Rilo Kiley should have never attempted disco-pop; U2 should have never gone Motown. But if Magierek and company can mix a twee piano/banjo piece called (of all the twee song titles in the universe, this is the most twee) "Wes Anderson" and a Sneaker Pimps-style sexy electro-pop cut ("Korea vs. Japan") without skipping a beat, more power to them. Happiness is Easy proves that it can be done, and done well.

One could argue that the five songs with Ahearn on vocal duties would be better suited as a more cohesive, early-emo-inspired EP of their own, but it's the other half of the album that keeps the formula from growing tired and makes Happiness is Easy such a pleasant surprise.

from Willamette Week by Casey Jarman