The Underground of Happiness

A Dubliner with a great line in Nilsson-esque songwriting (there’s a lot of that going around this month) and winning melodies. One of the most appealing things about this album is the lyrics, full of sincerity but thankfully without that dreaded earnestness and just as thankfully without any tiresome obliqueness. An opening line of “I get up in the morning, try to feel some sense of worth” could be a recipe for disaster in other hands. Here on the title track it’s paired with a lovely sprightly arrangement of upbeat acoustic guitar, twinkling piano and chirping strings for a genuinely touching effect. By the time he gets to “every song’s a souvenir for somebody to take”, if you’re anything like me you’ll be totally won over. He follows up with the wonderful ‘Things we have in common’, another lyric of self-doubt pulled up by its bootstraps by swirling strings and a chugging bassline. Plus self-doubt is all well and good but it’s given great dimension with songwriting (and an...

A few wonky Christmas numbers at the top of the show this week. Tex Ritter giving Santa a bit of western swing, The Three Suns bringing some excellent cheese (thank you Trunk Records ) and Astrocolour taking a more laid back, Air-ish approach to some classics of the season. Then a bunch of stuff that will be featuring in my Best of 2015 - The Drink , glorious twisting guitar shapes Field Music , horns on top of superior prog pop The Chills , heartlifting jangle pop Lee Hazlewood , a reissue but an absolute treasue of this year Robert Forster , elegaic, poetic, playful, wonderful. And Anderson (below), an Irish singer songwriter of substance and class. I like the way his jacket fits. More on these pages. Dec 8 2015 w Xmas Tunes, Field Music, The Drink, The Chills, Polar Bear, Anderson, Robert Forster++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.f...

During this week's show, someone suggested there was a bit of a "hunkering down for winter" feel to the playlist. There could be something in that, although more on my mind at the time was the classic style of 60s/70s singer-songwriters. So Harry Nilsson , an underrated (by some anyway) genius. Steve Warner , a sumptuous songwriter, from 1979, reissued now by Earth. Anderson , a Dublin artist somewhat following in their vaunted footsteps with his fine debut album. Bacharach & David , via Jackie De Shannon , fit into this pattern somehow. Julia Holter , imagine her singing Burt & Hal, I'd love that, gauzy and all. Glen Campbell singing one of the many to die for Jimmy Webb songs he recorded. New High Llamas , 70s AM radio refashioning. Owensie , great hushed folk drones. And Lee Hazlewood , the master of country lounge music (let's call it), from one of the great new Light in the Attic 1960s reissues. More on these pages. Nov 24 2015 w/ ...