Happy Birthday

Early reviews for this Sub Pop album are praising it's retro-vibe. And it's first track, the single, "Girls FM" certainly has a hook that feels like it came from Tommy James' playbook, with some sunshiney '70s pop melodies in the chorus; which then seamlessly modernizes itself with some studio rhythms and alt-rock riffage.

On the other hand, without really changing their sound too much, Happy switches to modern lo-fi punk with "Cracked". But slong the album, I'm finding that the guitar has less of the cool indie garageness that makes Guided By Voices sound like The Who's little brother, and more like a deliberate pop songwriter, who's looking at the guitar as little more than a vocal harmonizer.

An allmusic review has already accused the band of stealing the "Subliminal Message" drum riff from Tom Petty' s "Don't Come Around Here No More". But I would go a step further back and say that they're really channelling Paul Young's "Everytime You Go Away". Regardless of the comparison, it's the dreamiest track on the record and one of my standouts.

After this style gets establish, as is often the case with the confines of garage rock, it becomes less interesting. So you head-bob along the beginning and then through the middle you forget that you're even listening to anything. So, you get songs like, "I wanna suck your straw. Pink Strawberry Shake, I love you".

Also often the case, the band throws some strong songs in at the end so you remember who they were. "Zit" is the highest energy punk track of the album. And even if it's lyrics are simple, it will make the rounds of mix tapes just from its awesome snottiness alone. The whole effort though, is not awesome snottiness. It's lazi garage rock for guys who don't want to work any harder at the music than they want to put into a job. (2 of 5 stars)