HAPPY SONGS FOR HAPPY PEOPLE

"Happy Songs For Happy People"'s soothing beauty and little sonic adventures makes it a gem of Post-Rock music.

"Happy Songs For Happy People" has the happiest story of all Mogwai albums, excluding the debut; it is possibly the one that is least snubbed and the most praised among fans, once again if not considering "Young Team". Just to make it more simple, this release is the second best and most effective Mogwai album, the only album that comes close to the magnum opus. Memorable, beautiful, epic, and yet the shortest of Mogwai abums, it certainly gives a strong mark after it's forty minutes.

Musically Mogwai once again change: instead of the flat and monotonous sound of "Come On Die Young" these songs are much more enlivened, they once again have build ups to their songs, as this band truly knows how to do so. Vocoder is a lot more present and is used for a few songs, so that the original voice and lyrics are undistinguishable. But so makes it definitely more appealing for Mogwai fans, for it sounds more like another instrument rather than vocals. The synthesizers are almost never used, it is naturally another guitar-driven album, that experiments and isn't afraid to do so with different sound effects and walls of sound.

"Happy Songs For Happy People" is a collection of small, yet larger than life post-rock gems, smothered with strong emotion and impact. People think that the title is ironic, but I sense something more deep: the nostalgia, the sadness, but also the more dominant hope are moods that domain a person's life, whether we like it or not. Hope and expectations is what keeps us happy, thinking about the things that we are looking forward to makes us happy, just like thinking about fond memories of the past. These are in a way, truly happy songs for happy people who love to dream.

This concept is strengthened and proven with strong tracks like the sonically stunning "Hunted By A Freak", "Kids Will Be Skeletons", "Ratts Of The Capital". But there's also much experimentation with noise, like the closer "Stop Coming To My House", with electronics, like in "Moses? I Amn't", "I Know Who You Are But Am I?", which also experiments with a breathtaking piano melody. Calmer songs like "Golden Porsche", or the more drony "Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep", give another side of this album. However, there are a few moments where I wished there was more, since not all of these songs are extremely memorable, including some I mentioned.

Nevertheless, a very enjoyable album, a little gem of Post-Rock music and certainly one of the very best and most memorable Mogwai albums, because of its soothing beauty and little sonic adventures.

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