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The disco-rock jitters come back soon enough with the next selection, 'Let Me In,' but there's no denying that the group's horizons have broadened. For every throwback Cure sound-alike, such as 'Give Up?,' there's a lush retort featuring the Abbey Road Orchestra-like 'Outta Heart.'
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Under The RadarHappiness Ltd. is an ambitious album that lives up to the high bar that it sets for itself [Summer 2007, p.73]
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If Hot Hot Heat try a little too hard here, they still pile on infectious charm and solid songwriting until resistance seems futile.
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MojoHappiness Ltd is all about neat production, inventive time changes and romantically inclined witticisms. [Oct 2007, p.92]
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Sure, we can still dance, sing along and tap our feet to anything Happiness Ltd. offers, but it’s the band’s mature tone and dive into gigantic Springsteen-like stadium rockers that set their latest release above any of their others.
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The booming choruses, expansive melodies, and serrated guitar lines of the band's past remain--only now they're accompanied by Edgar Allan Poe-faced couplets like ''Happiness is limited/But misery has no end.''
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The trademark tempo jiggery remains and it's all threaded together with airy production that underlines rather than overwhelms.
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For much of Happiness, Bays slurs his way through the best music Hot Hot Heat has ever made.
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The result is a muddled album that gets even farther away from Hot Hot Heat's former glory even as it tries to recapture it.
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Alternative PressIt's still a blast to listen to Hot Hot Heat when they sound like they're having fun, even if they have to fake it. [Sep/Oct 2007, p.169]
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Happiness ultimately falls victim to a faintly generic feel. There’s nothing we haven’t heard before, so reserve the album for background music rather than close listening, and it shouldn’t disappoint.
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SpinOn Happiness Ltd., they admirably mess with success, loading up their spastic, skinny-tie ditties with epic heft. [Oct 2007, p.104]
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UncutHot Hot Heat have recently toned down a lot of their jerkier tendencies and are a lot less annoying for it. [Nov 2007, p.107]
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It's telling, though, that the best song on Happiness is a re-recorded '5 Times Out Of 100,' which originally appeared on the band's debut Sub Pop EP.
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Happiness Ltd. is a big mess.
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Much of Happiness Ltd. suffers from one of the cardinal sins of radio-ready rock: stuffing unmemorable verses between overblown choruses.
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Replacement guitarist Luke Paquin is serviceable but stays in the shadows, while vocalist Steve Bays sheds more of HHH's former skin on a sonically big record that offers only rare doses of the pulsating new wave punk energy they once emitted.
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So while '5 Times Out of 100' and 'My Best Friend' revive old times, you miss Steve Bay's unhinged vocals and jagged keyboards elsewhere when HHH instead try to compensate with a funky chant- rocker ('Give Up') or a big-drama Raspberries tribute (the title track).
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BlenderNow, on only their third major-label release, they sound almost middle-aged. [Oct 2007, p.110]
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Their third, Happiness Ltd, is a sulky teenager, and about as attractive and engaging as that suggests.
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Q MagazineThey've delivered their weakest set of songs to date. [Oct 2007, p.98]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 14
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Mixed: 5 out of 14
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Negative: 2 out of 14
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AllanC.Sep 26, 2007
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iieeeSep 19, 2007
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justinhSep 15, 2007Immaculate! Happiness Ltd. is far more mature and unique than anything out right now.