Customer Reviews

Happyness [Vinyl]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

On their previous album I wanted a bit more lyrics and it seems I got what I wanted in this album, and realized it's not what I wanted. I do like the singer's voice but it can get repetitive after you hear it in every song but I still really liked this album, especially the last track which is my favorite Aluminum track. Some of the tracks are really upbeat, which is refreshing and prevents this album from feeling too much the same. I would say this album is a must buy for Aluminum fans, but a first time buyer might be overwelmed with this album so I recomment you purchase their older CD titled 'Pelo' as your first steps into The Aluminum Group.

With "Happyness", their fifth release, the Aluminum Group refines the lush cocktail pop they introduced on Plano. John and Frank Navin, the Chicago-based architects of this sound, augment their Brasil 66-Burt Bacharach style by dropping in faddish elements such as the light drums'n'bass skiffle of "Tiny Kisses", the trance harmonies on the elegant drone "We're Both Hiding", and subtle touches of electroclash - mostly percussion -on any number of tracks. The surface of these songs are smooth, the vocals - and vocal harmonies - deadpan. Yet there are (barely hinted at) tensions underneath, the isolating detritus of modern love. There are times when the Aluminum Group sound like nothing more than a postmodern version of The Association. More often, they invoke the chill out room at the hippest club in the coolest city in the world.

WOW. All I can say is wow. The Navins have outdone themselves this time. Their songwriting is right on. Their use of electronics is much more focused than it was on Pelo and this should suit all their fans perfectly. Their lyrics, as always, are clever "as far as I'm concerned you can find yourself another unmarked hotel" - We're Both Hiding. Their voices and harmonies are lush and as crystal clear as ever. The instrumentation is perfect. Automatically gets my vote for album of the year. I am thrilled that this is only the first in a proposed trilogy! My only complaint is that this album is far too short with only 10 tracks. Other than that, great job guys. Favorite song: "Two Lights" - Classic Aluminum Group genius (as is this entire CD)

These guys are in their own world of Bacharach, smoove electronica, futuro jazz, Design references, and cufflink lyrics. Or something. There's nothing like it out there. Vodka harmonies poured over perfect pop. Getting used to their spin is worth it. Don't be limited by pedestrian assumptions. I only wish it were about 15 minutes longer.

This was the first cd I've heard from the Aluminum Group and I absolutely loved it. I bought it after hearing one song and was not disappointed. The lyrics are catchy without being trite. The music is both soulful and fun. I especially like "Tiny Descions." I have this cd in my car and never get tired of hearing it.

Oh Gawd is this good. I was Hooked on "Pedals" because I love Jim O'Rourke, but as I purused through the music racks I saw that Frank and John made another one and bought it on impulse. When I first hit the "play" button (I popped it in to listen to as I wrapped presents back in November) I was dissapointed. This was not my lounge singers The Aluminum Group! Electronics! Pah! BUT, and this is a big but, when it was all over and done, I was sad, and HAD to hear it again. For the past month I've been listening, still can't make out all the lyrics w/o reading the book, but am addicted for some strange reason. The whole mention of futuristic retro above is because, like the forties, fifties and early sixties, they sing, think, and are concerned about what is to come. They are, in truth, a very contemporary band. Not stylistically, maybe, but certainly in thier adventurous noise and lyric. It is no soft display of affection or loss like "Wonderboy+" nor a musical orgy like "Pedals," but it's something you HAVE to have. This is the only band that has won me over from Crass.

After their last album, Happyness marks a return to that classic Aluminum sound- lush melodies, witty lryics and understated production. While perhaps not as razor sharp production wise as Plano, this album has some of the band's best lyrics.
It is not going to change the world, but is made me happy :-)

Have you ever been trapped under an overpass during a sudden summer storm? Well then, you know how it is when you sit next to your Vespa and wish you'd seen it coming. Well, I wished I'd seen this coming because it charmed the leg-warmers right off of me. A tremendous achievement. Let the boys do what they do best -- write tremendous lyrics and harmonize like some kind of delicious Wicker Park Tabernical Choir.

The thing that made/makes the Aluminum Group so good is that they have an appreciation for both old-fashioned songwriting and futuristic sounds. Their albums sounds like The Carpenters might've if they'd recorded with ProTools. However, I think the production side of things may have gotten out of hand on this album. All the wacky sounds and (admittedly) very creative percussion rhythms seem to take the focus away from the songs themselves. One thing that made PLANO such a great album (and still their best, in my opinion) was that there was no wasted space on any songs. All verses/choruses/interludes seemed to have an amazingly inspired purpose. Since PLANO, AG has become increasingly more experimental and electronic in their approach. This is their cleanest sounding record -- and many songs are first-rate ("Pop", "I Blow You Kisses", and "Two Lights" immediately come to mind) -- but others seem to get lost in the sounds. Ultimately, these guys are still great and sound like no other group -- I just hope they can eventually showcase their songwriting skills once again on future releases.

The Aluminum Group may be the best pop band in America. The fact that only a few thousand people know about them tells you nothing about them, and everything you need to know about how low the common denominator has sunk in music.

When we say pop now, most think of Spears and Agulara or whoever else has boiled all the individuality out of their music; you have to do this. I once went to a recording session of a young band and a friend of mine commented they may have to get that cowbell out of their music--it may be too strong a sound for modern listeners.

We forget that pop used to mean the Beatles, The Beach Boys, Steely Dan--bands of strong individualists we now revere, correctly, as much as we do the best classical composers. They did not sound like anybody else, but tried to find something totally different to outdo their masterful peers. The Aluminum Group has, for me, worked their way into this catgory.

But it gets better: this band has the skills of the best bands of old, but put them in a completely modern context. If you can concieve of modern synthasizer pop with all the love and care of the 60s masters, you have started to nail just why this band is sooooooo good, and just keeps improving each listen.

"Tiny Disicions" is the first track here, and is a perfect example of what Aluminum Group does so well, so consistently. It starts with a rising synth line that runs through the whole song, and never gets above a whisper. Slowly, the song progresses. A muted trumpet sneaks up. An imperceptable change in the bass line takes place. Suddenly, their is a backing vocal you spot in mid-line. The synthasized percussion adds layers, but does so at such a snails pace, you don't realize this. Wait--there is a harpsichord. I think I get a Fender Rhodes, too.

Its like a fine wine, and as any taster knows, this is not really work; just let the liquid sit on the pallet again and again, and the wine does the work. New nuances, countless complexites, undetected ingrediants. The Alluminum Group works the same way. Subtlety is the word, but subtlety is nothing without subtance, and there is more than enough here to last decades.

If you like the comprehensive expermentation of 1960s rock, calm and methodical 70s prefection and the modern sleekness of the more artful 80s bands, this band does has all this. If this takes time to spot, it is only that it takes time to hear any band master so many levels at once.

The singing and words here work the same way. Like some of the best singers, the vocalist here does not so much sing as talk using notes. He has a big tenor voice, but he barely raises it beyond a breath.

On one track here, "Kid" he sings "you should be casting your fishing pole/just as far as a metephore will go/you'll be tugging on somebody's heart strings/before you know." Like the best poets, the writter here puts the words together in ways we would not have conceived of, but we know exactly what he is saying, because he is talking to us. He expresses universal feelings in a way that is new but makes instictual sense.

But all this analsys means little. Just buy this. Listen to it. Then keep listening to it.

It is brilliant