Happiness Project - 9th Heaven

It's funny, because I just came from reviewing another album from BOREDOMproduct, a French based record label focusing on electronic and pop music. I was quite disappointed with the last album that I reviewed from them, but everyone deserves a second shot; after all, I cannot let one artist spoil the entire ensemble of a record label. And, so, with a clean slate for the label, I took a look at Happiness Project.

They are a synthpop and electro group from the home country of the label, France, and feature three members altogether. Right now, they have two EPs out, and one album (and that album is the one which you are about to hear me talk about altogether). And, well, I can just say from the start that I am not impressed with this trio.

I would like to point out, from the start of my rant, that this is one of those albums that just cannot suck me in no matter how hard it tries. I can listen to the music through my headphones, blow out my ear drums through surround sound, or even have a thousand people sing the songs to me, but I just find no way to really groove into this album. Perhaps if I tried to do so, I may be able to wiggle my big toe to the beat. But I will refuse to let my head bounce along to the rhythm of the songs.

I tried figuring out the reason as to why I disliked the album so much as a good reviewer ought to do. At first, I thought it might be the French vocals, but that would be a huge lie on my part. I've listened to other French bands, such as Krystal System, and (while the band is a different genre) I enjoyed the French-accented vocals. In fact, it's one of the qualities that stuck out to me in their albums. So, I could not say that it was the vocals; that would be a lie to both myself and my readers, and I would never lie to any of your beautiful faces.

So, vocals eliminated, I guess it would have to be the beats that really just didn't do me in too well, right? Well, once more, I found myself at a loss. I didn't really find much of a problem with any of the electronic backdrops, so it couldn't have been that, either. And, so, with both those things in mind, I suppose the only thing I could possibly tell you is that this band just didn't do anything to capture my attention.

I mean, seriously, music is not supposed to bore the listener at all. And, here I am, sitting in my room, looking for something to make my day just a little more exciting, so I go to music. And I am left with a pretty bad album that just makes me go from being okay with my day to being not okay and rather upset with my day. Music, in any form, should not do that to me. It should really make me either relax, or get happy, or even angry; either three of those emotions is preferable over boredom and sadness.

But, they try, they really do; they use duel lead singers, such as in Fleshandbones. And that song has a light synth and some church bells to go along with it, but it's just so tasteless to me, and doesn't really push much to go above and beyond that I find it easy to skip over. Train of Life is a pop song that I really just found a bit too annoying in my ears for one reason or the other; it's most likely because I found the duel vocals to completely fail in all senses in this case. It came out to be annoying, and a giant slop house.

Now, I cannot be a deceiver by saying that all songs are completely malnourished of any specs of enjoyment. The one, and perhaps only track that I found to be at least half decent on the album was Balloons and Zeppelins. And the reason I purposely put half decent is because I literally only find the second part of the song to be pretty good. The first part serves up the male vocals some more, and I just cannot stand those anymore. However, the second half becomes more fast paced, delivering a more EBM sort of styling, with the vocals coming out a bit more heartily, as if there's actually some purpose behind the noise. And that's what I really liked. I'd listen to this half of the song again if I had to.

I come walking away from Happiness Project with a frown on the inside, and it seems as if they failed in their intended purposes. Not only that, but I find the title of the album to be all the more disturbing right now; considering that Nirvana is the ninth Heaven, and leaves you with a still mind. I absolutely do not find myself achieving any such peace or resolution at the moment. I think I'm just going to go bury my face in my pillow and listen to some good synthpop to clear my head of this plague. And, the worse part about this whole rant is that I hate getting upset over music; it rarely happens, but when it does, I really just lose faith in humanity (more than I already have, at least). Jul 30 2013