Landmark moments in rock music have often been the result of an artist successfully merging previously distinct genres into a new style all its own. Hallmark examples include Dylan plugging in and merging literary, folk lyrics with a rock sound (Highway 61 Revisited and subsequent tour). Another notable instance was when U2 blended post-punk with Americana (Joshua Tree album and subsequent tour). While unsuccessful efforts could spawn an awkward, ugly, useless beast, in the successful instances the result is the sum being greater than the parts and the formation of a new, highly functioning animal.
While no one here is suggesting Raymond Happiness has made a laboratory mark the equivalent of the aforementioned artists, their debut album The End is clearly its own creature with a sound that not only works, but is enjoyably and distinctly... Raymond Happiness.
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| The Kounter brothers of Raymond Happiness |
As we've been following their successive singles and EP, RH's notable experimentalism has offered us some highly interesting tracks. While the melee of genres they've traversed might have resulted in them becoming a mere novelty act, their full-length debut album has revealed them to be anything but mere novelty. The End, instead, is a highly honed-in collection of songs that blends Indie Alt-Pop, EDM, and even some shades of Classic rock, into a natural, flowing experience. Neither musically nor lyrically does the album sound forced, but instead is artistically constructed with heartfelt precision. The opening track (with SPARKS-ish inflections and attitude) is followed by the title cut, which sets a very modern, studio mogul feel. It also begins setting the base colors of the album with a recurring motif of somber joy. One could describe the mood as an existential or even spiritual attitude that speaks to the writing on the wall for a coming apocalypse, while there can still be a youthful spirit that goes deeper than these mere surface issues - and even far above them. Both lyrically and sonically the album repeatedly displays a depth that can be ironic, paradoxical, and thought provoking (note the chorus "We've got a long time left, and no time at all."). Throughout the listening process, one notices countless arrangement and production contrasts. Reverberation levels are both wet, and then dry. Keyboard sounds are both modern and retro (notice the Fender Rhodes sounds of "No Time At All" and the closing synth sound of its bridge that resembles the old Juno variety). Instrumental riffs are both electronic and acoustic - studio programmed and live. Often the exchanges happen several times in the same track (see the acoustic bridge of "God Only Knows" that morphs a pop ballad into a Relient K type of interlude, with the segue-way back into the main theme featuring live, post-punk, high-hat drumming). The songwriting ranges from catchy pop to an almost classic rock vibe (see especially the brilliant "Glow" which is almost a hybrid of Coldplay meets the "Late for the Sky" era of Jackson Browne, all in 6/8 time). One might expect in all this the album would be disjointed. Know for certain it's anything but that. Aside from the pop, intermission-like "Kansas" which serves strategically as a clear-your-head type of digression, the album flows almost seamlessly in a stride of both melancholic and reflective... happiness. Suffice it to say, there are "Wolves among the dogs in the yard" - but the Raymonds remind us, fortunately, there is a "way out."
Before taking your own dogs for a walk in the warm weather of our 2022 season, know that Raymond Happiness' The End might just be the best album animal of the summer.
You can enjoy one of the notable tracks "Wolves" right here ("Wolves" by Raymond Happiness on Youtube), but be sure and check out the entire album on SPOTIFY, APPLE MUSIC, and I-Tunes.
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(If you like any of these artists, you will probably like Raymond Happiness - or vice-versa: Pyramid Park, Foster the People, OM-53, Coldplay, Mirrours, Relient K, Owl City. Josh Garrels, Built by Titan)
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