Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Perhaps it could be considered wise, a sense of the shrewd and sensible in which to look at life, to embrace the past and the future as equals whilst leaving the problems of the moment completely out of touch, not worth the dime that you might spend worrying about them; to look upon both directions of your life as a series of progressive thoughts and to care for them, care for Everything But The Here And Now.
Happy Accidents latest album, Everything But The Here And Now, feels like it is an offering to the gods who look after the both spectrums of the mortal’s lives and understands why we ignore the trials and tribulations, the out and out war of the moment. A music inclined deity takes notes, waves a hand over the split second between the tick and the tock and firmly suggests that the now does not matter; what should be concerning all is what is to come and for Happy Accidents that sense of fortune and future is assured in this set of songs.
For the threesome, Rich, Neil and Phoebe, this album is that next step, the laurels to which many sit upon as they reflect the enormity of what has gone before, is not in evidence here, what is though is the mindset of continuing exploration. The desire to stretch themselves further than they have gone before and set the tone with an array of unheard voices, of songs that are both turbulent and destructive, menacing even but with that scarce ability to make the songs seem lighter than air, to make them graft and sweat but also to acknowledge all that they have come to endure and give them the sense of peace where possible.
If anything is done by design we celebrate it, however, we should also thanks the gods of Happy Accidents, for in that brush with fate, comes a more honourable state of affairs in which to rejoice in. In tracks such as Wait It Out, A Better Plan, Different Views and Text Me When You’re Home, Happy Accidents have taken on the present and thought very much in the terms of the possibilities of the future, their future and it is one that is getting rosier on each step taken.
A very good album, full of the menace that you would expect but one in which the hold over the listener is made of softer and more robust pleasure; Everything But The Here And Now, is not just of the moment.
Happy Accidents release Everything But The Here And Now on February 16th via Alcopop!
Ian D. Hall