Heartbreaking Bravery

Now that the impressive slate of recent music videos and full streams have been exhaustively covered, it’s time to turn the attention towards individual songs. At the end of the week there were strong offerings from Dyan, Dentist, Cat Be Damned, and Kino Kimino. However, it was a curiosity from Happyness that managed to hit hardest, so it claims this posts feature spot.

Resuming the kind of carefree coasting that’s made their output so far so irresistibly charming, Happyness once again manages to hit a variety of sweet spots as they combine appealing bits of Americana, slacker pop, and proto-punk into a characteristically inviting tapestry. “SB’s Truck” is the kind of song that invites you to get lost and then world-builds so effectively that when it finally ends, it’s somewhat of a disappointment because, well, it ends.

Dissect the song’s narrative and it continues to reward; the song’s built around the little-known fact that celebrated playwrite Samuel Beckett used to give André Rene Roussimoff (more commonly known as André the Giant) to school as a boy because he was too big to fit into a car. It’s the kind of story that exudes the warmth that so frequently defines Happyness’ work. The pairing of the narrative with Happyness’ musical sensibilities is, in a word, perfect.

Whether “SB’s Truck” comes to be regarded as a summer anthem for the literary-minded or eventually, inevitably, becomes a celebrated anomaly of the band’s catalog doesn’t hold any importance. What counts is that for the four and a half minutes the song exists, nothing else seems to matter. A restrained piece of subdued, inspired brilliance, “SB’s Truck” shows that Happyness aren’t going away anytime soon and that they’re still finding ways to improve.

Listen to “SB’s Truck” below and keep an eye on this site for more updates on the band.