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Album Review

One Happy Island
One Happy Island Oddbox Records

Article written by Ged M - Aug 2, 2010

onehappyisland.jpg
One Happy Island
One Happy Island are a band from Boston, Massachusetts, who are billed as having “an electric ukulele, a rudimentary drum kit and a hollow-body guitar that won’t stay in tune”, but their indiepop is sharper and less oddball than that instrumental line up suggests. There are still some oblique ideas, like the kazoo that kicks off ‘The Bike Song’, a great female-sung ballad using cycling as a metaphor for love (“I wish I’d bought a unicycle”) and other slightly quirky tales. In the 15 tracks, there are bittersweet ballads (How To Hurt’), possibly the only musical tribute to the movie Showgirls ever (‘Nomi, You’re A Star’) and the crazy new wavy ‘Cave City Sunrise’ with its almost childlike sense of rebellion: “hey, tyrannosaurus, we’re not scared!” The bouncy ‘Horse Cave, Kentucky’ could be second cousin to the Spinto Band while the ultra-melodic ‘Elegant Elephant’ is a clever series of puns acting as a catchy love song. The One Happy Island approach is particularly fun, banishing any notion of tweeness with more reflective comedown songs like the tale of a clingy partner who refuses to give up (‘Kudzu Girlfriend’). Songs of innocence and experience, bubbly indiepop and bittersweet ballads, trumpets and kazoos, their self-titled debut is a joyful jumble of melodic indiepop that could make even Stephen Hawking get up and dance.

Links:
http://oddboxrecords.com/
http://www.myspace.com/onehappyislandmusic

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