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Its artwork has the sort of washed-out color tones that usually suggest an album from Jack Johnson or one of his buddies, but do not be alarmed by the beanie you see on the cover of the Guggenheim Grotto's Happy the Man - this is not campfire music for college sophomores. Rather, it's an album of electronic-laced grown-up pop music, firmly grounded with acoustic guitars and harmonies, and filled to the brim with graceful hooks and instantly memorable, partly-cloudy melodies that should appeal to fans of smart Anglopop bands like Crowded House and the Trashcan Sinatras.
It's a very subtle record, in other words, made up of songs with very subtle charms - but damn if they don't all gang up on you and rope you in. I often listen to an album a dozen times or more before writing a review, and that's been the case here - but I could have taken it off repeat a long time ago; I just keep replaying Happy the Man because it's so gently addictive. Not every song lands with the impact of the killer opening one-two punch of Fee Da Da Dee (download) and Her Beautiful Ideas (with its wonderful refrain of Let's get naked and get under the sheets), but there's plenty to love here, and very little not to like.
Lovely on the surface, the Guggenheim Grotto's music is seemingly tailor-made for Starbucks and television soundtracks - and it has already surfaced in both locations - but don't be deceived by its seemingly facile beauty: co-Grotto Kevin May says he and partner Mick Lynch wanted to sing joyfully about sadness in the world on this album, and they've succeeded in adding sweetly somber overtones to Happy's head-bobbing refrains. The result is an album that feels lighter than air, but carries a weight that will linger after the final chord fades. Wait for the physical product to reach shelves in January, or download the mp3 album now; either way, if you have a weakness for unabashedly sentimental, artfully assembled pop music, you won't want to miss Happy the Man. --PopDose
In their second full-length album, Guggenheim Grotto presents a beautiful yet haunting collection of songs; although often upbeat, but with an undercurrent of melancholy, Happy the Man is no less an incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking album. The heartfelt stance found in the words and melodies from the Irish duo of Kevin May and Mick Lynch are reminiscent of Postal Service's 2003 album, Give Up, and they do the homage great justice, providing themes and sounds of which Ben Gibbard would be proud.
Fee da da dee opens Happy the Man, and provides a cascading and semi-vertical journey that hits not merely all the proper chords, but soars above them and brings the listener along for the ride; although it's difficult to determine if the female vocalist found on this track is helping to uplift or pull the listener back down to earth, it's difficult to argue with her, so persuasive and entrancing are both her and May's vocals on this track when layered over the delicately synthesized and carefully organized acoustics. Even though his lyrics sing towards aging and reality, his lyrical return of getting there isn't twinged so much with sadness, regret, or longing for a day of yesterday, but instead an acknowledgment, acceptance and a smile. The steady bass beat behind all of this provides a framework that makes it tremendously difficult to not smile throughout hearing it.
This format - intricate and delicate melodies, carefully crafted and executed beautifully, permeates most of the album, Happy the Man; even though the song, Sunshine Makes Me High, found midway through the album, begins in a somewhat slow and plodding fashion, it quickly crescendos in a multi-layered and almost painfully uplifting chorus. This is an incredibly difficult album to wrap your mind around when depressed, as the ultimate effect, regardless of your intention, is to feel just a little bit mysterious and surreally uplifted; it's a strange, but enjoyable effect of Happy the Man.
Interestingly, the album doesn't lyrically revolve around typical pop-sensitive/artistic-guy landscape so often found in this area. May's language, steeped with metaphor and references to be caught only by his carefully specific targets, is no less beautiful and haunting on Everyman than on the playful and the painfully heartfelt The Dragon, a song that chronicles May's brother's ability to awaken in dreams; You can do anything if you awaken in dreams, grow ten feet taller and talk with giraffes, with one single step cut the Universe in half, if you can do anything, if you can wake up in dreams, with the particularly poignant section of the song coming with, They waited awhile till the door opened wide, my father walked in, and he and my brother embraced. Following the embrace, the light string selection of the artists unfolds around the listener, chanting behind them, and it paints a beautiful, heartwarming and softly orange, pink and blue glow. It's a striking, melancholy, and sad but wonderful effect. --TheCelebrityCafe.com
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