4 out of 5

Label: Supermegacorporation

Produced by: Elizabeth Venable, Jody Hughes, Ryan Heise, Dusty Reske, Levi Cecil, and Geoff Soule

Elizabeth Venable, recording here under her last name, again finds a comfortable place amongst the Fuck-adjacent weird folk-pop of the supermegacorporation. But whereas many of her peers (Fuck included) tend to flirt with humor – either in part or in whole – Where’s the Happy is, lyrically, a very sober affair, though enlivened by its head-bobbing melodies and Venable’s sing-song vocals and straight-forward phrasings. Towards the album’s end, it feels like we start to cycle through some songs we’ve already heard in some form or another, but the core style of crisp acoustic guitar and a poppy drum beat is easy to want more of, and Where’s the Happy shakes that up enough with some nigh-rocking instrumentals and odd tweaks to the hooks – a propensity for winding the notes of a melody down when most would go up – that it’s a shame that this seems hard to track down nowadays, only really findable via archived web links; it is one of the most consistent and rewarding offerings from SMC, and maybe also more direct than Venable’s work with Sad Horse.

The album’s acapella rendering of the title can mislead into thinking this will be some outre folk affair – it’s not. While the Fuck crew are linked by an appreciation for atypical chord progressions, Venable is working more in a realm of acoustic pop – think some of Fuck’s catchier singles – elevated by her impactful lyrics, and ability to stretch between a more somber and lively styles of singing as needed. She’s assisted here generally by some drumming, but we get some nice full-band flourish on tracks, crisply recorded.