Alt-pop outfit `Rear Window` who are vocalist JJ Sterry and guitarist/producer Santi Arribas, release their debut album `Happiness By Design` this month. Rear Window first met when JJ Sterry was invited by the late Andy Gill to join his influential post-punk outfit Gang of Four as their new front man, with whom he toured extensively from 2015. At the time, Arribas was working with Gill at his Rear Windowrecording studios until his passing, after which Arribas took over the running of the place.
The album kicks off with `Multi-Coloured Skies` a song about personal inspiration, the unfulfillment of dreams and how optimism can drive hope. It`s a dreamy offering with vocals that at times seem anxious, remote, and detached. A track that musically seems to reflect the cloud iridescence or colourful optical phenomenon that the title suggests. There`s a sense of unease about `Head Above Water` both lyrically and audibly. A number full of insecurities and doubts.
`Give My Regards` had the feel of a stream of consciousness shared in the aftermath of a personal trauma with thoughts relayed fairly rapidly and almost unrelentingly over a tasteful complimenting musical backdrop. There`s an almost introspective sensation to `Running Away` a composition about self-destructing a relationship or friendship when things are getting to comfortable. It`s all set against a distracted Latin / bossa nova beat.
`The Price I Pay` has a fast paced driving pulsing beat and appears to reflect on trying to reconnect with former friends who you`ve lost touch with which doesn`t always work out but occasionally is successful. We have in `Happiness By Design` a number which was inspired by a book found in a charity shop about finding pleasure and purpose in everyday things. A submission that rolls along with a rhythmic beat which allows the lyrical content to almost seep in fairly hypnotically.
`It’s Raining Again (In Soho)` was written soon after Shane McGowan died which began as a tribute to him but soon morphed into something else. A ballad like slow burn that has an expansive observational reflection on our own immediate environment and the much wider subject of human existence. I read that `Rocket Men` was written in collaboration with TIME/LIFE author Catherine Mayer widow of the late Andy Gill, founder of Gang of Four. A song about how the super-rich are always looking to package and monetise to gain financially from things the rest of us may have used for good. There`s an underlying recurring vibrating beat that allows this chain of thought to be expressed.
`The Eleventh Hour` is a rumination on finding that certain someone after a previous relationship left you almost in despair. There`s wavering synths and intricate riffs, synthesised percussion, and more expansive ethereal dreamlike tones. An exploration of the disappointment and discouragement felt when success alludes us despite our best efforts follows with `Strike Me Down`. But overriding human resilience and the Robert the Bruce attributed idiom of “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” kind of wins through here in this part electronic, dream / space rock tinged tome.
`Too Much To Lose` is steeped in contemplation of success not bringing fulfilment or satisfaction but the inability to resist the urge to continue. It has a jazzy late night vibe about it. The final cut is a cover of `Suspicious Minds` a no 1 hit from 1969 that revived Presley’s chart success in the U.S. it`s an electronic re-imagining that does have its own enticing attractions.
`Happiness By Design` is a delightfully endearing, enchanting, and appealing listen, bursting to the seems with melodies and electro-pop essences which touches on diverse subjects such as the uniformity of modern life, existential conflict, daily spontaneous thought processes and reverie. It`s an album to set aside some time and let it envelope you in it`s musical and lyrical appeal and charm.
Rating 9/10
