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Are You Scared to Get Happy?

reviewed by dave heaton

"Are you scared to get happy?", the CD cover asks the business man on the cover, standing on a street corner. Or asks us, maybe. Actually, it's the name of a play, and this is its soundtrack, originally released by the Stockholm label Friendly Noise in early 2006. It's an enjoyable collection of dreamy music of various styles, starting with a lovely electronic dance track by the increasingly acclaimed The Field (aka Axel Willner, who also appears later in the CD as Lars Blek). There's mellow, jazzy atmosphere (Auton); electronic drifts that morph into pop tunes (Erik de Vahl); head-in-clouds drift-pop a la a spacier St Etienne (Friday Bridge); futuristic world music (Conduo Orchestra); a surprising sort-of folk-music shake-up (Testibild!); straight-up sweet-and-melancholy indie-pop (Dianas Tempel); and an instrumental Radio Dept song that again proves them to be always shaking off expectations. There's also covers, my favorite being a pumped-up, electronic "Fascination Street" from Flow Flux Clan, one where the "move to the beat" lyric works, because there's a beat to move to. There are a lot of beautiful music here, traveling the nexus of songcraft, pure atmosphere and experimentation. The title Are You Scared to Get Happy? may describe the play, but it fits the music somehow, both because of the general introspective leaning and because it could be a self-analytical question aimed at the soundtrack itself. That is, nothing here will bounce you happily away, but it is gorgeous, thoughtful music from a variety of interesting artists.

{www.friendlynoise.se, www.radiokhartoum.com}


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