Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Happy? Some people aren’t and some are, it’s a fact of life for every person who is truly ecstatic somebody somewhere must be feeling the damage of life lived, the pain of suffering or even the slightest niggle of annoyance. Whether it’s down to that underlying Human emotion of jealousy or greed, they will probably resent the person who is just content with their lot in the life. Happy? It’s a feeling that needs careful nurturing, it requires on occasion to be kept hidden lest black shadows try to destroy it but ultimately it can be the most fulfilling of all sensations and the rather interesting title of the new album by Elmo and The Styx
From the AntiPop stable of Liverpool musicians comes Elmo and The Styx and regardless of your own definition of Happy, the three musicians that shake the idealistic, perhaps even materialistic view of the emotion, grab the attention with their gutsy display of performance and lyrics that will make you redefine what it means to be Happy.
The lyrics held within the 30 minute album are far from the content, they sing with blistering anger, of rampant solitude and exultant determination to get across the point of feeling out of sorts with the world, of being perhaps the anti-heroes in a world obsessed by fame, fortune, celebrity and appearance. The appearance of not stepping out of line, of having your personality hidden away just in case you upset somebody with your thoughts on the darker side of life’s puzzle.
For anybody listening to Rob, Dean and J.J., the lyrics are creative in their invention and whilst not happy, they are blissfully furious. The wrath of a generation whose voice has remained unheard but placed well into lyrics that elude rather than confuse, that takes the irate out on themselves lest anybody believes that the heated debate is out in the open. It isn’t yet but it will be.
Tracks such as Someone Tell Me What Went Wrong, 2001, Male Pride and My True Face reflect an explosion that has been waiting to happen for a while and are a joy to look between the words, to really reach into the mind of a band and have the same feelings openly acknowledged. Happy? Perhaps it just boils down to knowing that you are not alone in the universe, that somebody, somewhere has your back and they expose your own sense of growing discomfort and anger.
Ian D. Hall