Artist:   Grouplove
Title:    Never Trust A Happy Song
Label:    Atlantic
Genre:    Indie
Bitrate:  257kbit av.
Time:     00:46:34
Size:     90.10 mb
Rip Date: 2011-09-05
Str Date: 2011-09-05

01. Itchin' On A Photograph                                       4:19
02. Tongue Tied                                                   3:38
03. Lovely Cup                                                    4:17
04. Colours                                                       4:17
05. Slow                                                          3:38
06. Naked Kids                                                    3:30
07. Spun                                                          3:25
08. Betty's Bomb Shell                                            3:34
09. Chloe                                                         3:18
10. Love Will Save Your Soul                                      3:47
11. Cruel And Beautiful World                                     4:03
12. Close Your Eyes And Count To Ten                              4:48

Release Notes:

"If it makes you happy," Sheryl Crow once mused, "then why the hell are
you so sad?" It’s a question that could well be reversed and asked of
California five-piece Grouplove, whose hotly anticipated debut album is
finally a tangible prospect. While its songs – on their glossy, shiny,
chirpy, summery surface – seem full of ebullient joy, underneath that
buoyant exterior, there’s a lingering, ineluctable sense of melancholy.
The first thing, however, that strikes you about these 12 songs is just
how different they are. Not necessarily from other bands around today –
although that’s true to an extent – but from each other; just how much,
in this album’s 47 minutes, it shifts sounds.

The breezy, doe-eyed, wistful opener Itchin’ on a Photograph is
redolent of their first, self-titled EP, where, like that record’s lead
track, Colours, there’s more than a hint of Modest Mouse to Christian
Zucconi’s vocals and the song’s soaring yet delicate melody. It’s
upbeat but wistful, life-affirming yet jaded – akin, perhaps, to
experiencing the hangover of a crazy night out while still downing the
cocktails.

It’s a paradox that runs through the whole album. Tongue Tied is
similarly caught between two polar opposites, its sentiment at
beautiful odds with its bouncy tune; while the aforementioned Colours
and the whimsical Lovely Cup, although seemingly nonsensical at first,
soon reveal themselves as full of emotional instability. Slow – a dark,
spectral song, and one of a few on which keyboardist/vocalist Hannah
Hooper takes centre stage – completely shifts the musical focus of the
record, something which Naked Kids, replete with its Bran Van
3000-esque slow-motion ‘rap’ takes full advantage of, while it emulates
the perfect California day.

Elsewhere, Betty’s a Bombshell is a lilting story song that glides with
syrupy harmonies, Love Will Save Your Soul an immediately hummable,
optimistic, energetic (and wonderfully naïve) romp, and penultimate
number Cruel and Beautiful World a downbeat, rain-soaked ode to the
best and worst things in life, all of which is captured in its simple
but powerful chorus. Then, Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten ends the
album with bittersweet poignancy. Never Trust a Happy Song is far from
a cohesive album, but that actually works to its advantage – because it
encapsulates the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, of this emotional
rollercoaster known as life. Live it – and (Group)love it.