5 out of 5

Label: Sonic Noise

Produced by: Davis McCain, Doug Easley, Scott (engineered by)

Yeah, I’ll stan for this album. I recognize The Grifters’ narrative tells of refinement on the way to some ultimate rootsy rock releases on Sub Pop – and with followup One Sock Missing, I start subscribing to that narrative – but there’s some downright magic on So Happy Together that somewhat proves the blessings of limited means and no expectations, delivering an experience that taps into all the best parts of Grifters’ rawness and riffage, and masks their indulgences via the almost surreal wall of noise through which the lo-fi set is recorded. This is assisted by perfect sequencing, which works in a knob-twiddling register of static and barely-heard  music for just long enough to kind of set the stage, then allows in moody, washed out rhythms, and then finally unleashes the rock, and the deep guttural yowl of either Scott Taylor’s or David Shouse’s vocals. You’ve been garden-pathed here and are now surprised – pleasantly – and the songs continue little cycles of this throughout.

If you’re assessing in its original 6-song format, that means we end on the epic Oar, which keeps building in intensity beyond what the fidelity of the recording should theoretically be capable; in the extended 10 (or 12…) song format, the group expands on the formula by delivering more complexly structures variants

These are tunes as dense as stuff from Crappin’ You Negative or beyond, but with some of the eye-rolling goofiness buried in the noise, or massaged into the better – more consistent – blending of that noise with song, improving on Sock’s wandering.

Yeah, there’s some beautiful, affecting, amazing stuff after this album, but this debut is also proof of how early The Grifters “had it,” and how perfection can sometimes be produced on what might otherwise seem like a lark.