Ralphy's C.D. Reviews

Review date 08-10-2000: K's Choice - C.D. Almost happy

"Almost happy" is the fourth studio-album by K's Choice, more details about the band you can find in the review of their previous album "Cocoon crash". As I added in that review the line-up of the band has changed in the form of the drummer, Dutchman Bart van der Zeeuw left the band and was replaced by Koen Victor Lieckens. Producers for this new album were the New Zealanders Marshall Bird and Steve Bush, best known for their work for British Band The Stereophonics. For the final mix of "Almost happy" (which was recorded at the Real World Studios of Peter Gabriel) K's Choice attained the services of the Tchad Blake, who does the same for the albums of Pearl Jam.

Now enough of the name-dropping and technicalities and back to the essence of a review, the music. I am a big fan of K's Choice, in fact it's the only band of which I am a fan club member, but I'll try to be as objective as possible about this new album. The title of the album and the first single is "Almost happy" and that is lyrically a good comment for the CD. Sarah and Gert are both very content and pleased about their personal and professional lifes, but the lyrics describe that feeling of something missing, something spiritual ("Any time tomorrow I'll pretend to see the light"), something relating to the meaning of life ("As far as the world goes, I still don't have a clue, what it's for or what it's about"). They seem to be contemplating, where they are in life, saying that they have to let go of their adolescence and grow up, but at the same time they're saying they still don't know a thing about the important questions in life and maybe they never will ("We learn so much but never know"). They are happy with every-day-life without knowing the deeper meaning of it, therefore the 'almost' and they also feel sometimes like they and people in general are going through the motions of life without knowing where it is leading to ("Life is easy when you fake it") and they also criticize those who become to materialistic ("I guess that's what you do when life's about your next vacation"). No lyrically there is nothing wrong with this album, good lyrics about issues that concern all of us, the philosophical search of man.

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Now about the music, what I miss in the album is the variation of previous albums. The album is straight soft-rock, and I was always a big fan of their harder songs like "Hide" on "Cocoon crash". I do not believe that there is a big hit single on the album, which is sad because again K's Choice will not get discovered by the greater masses especially in the USA, where the album will be released in early 2001. Don't get me wrong the songs are good, especially when you listen to them intensely, but you don't get that 'Wow'-feeling immediately, there is not a song that grabs you by the throat at first listen and these are the songs that get into the charts nowadays. The songs do have a classic quality to them, like the longest song on the album "Shadowman", which reminds me of the music of Simon & Garfunkel, partly because Gert is doing the lead vocals on that one. "Always everywhere" is Sarah's tribute to her mother (her dad already got 'his' song on "Paradise in me"), "Home" is made to sound like an old scratched up lp-single, which works very well. "My head" describes the desire to love and nurse your partner without understanding everything they do and think. The title song and first single "Almost happy" has some great guitar riffs and surprising transitions. Other great songs are the opener "Another year" about letting time slip by (the going through the motions-part), "Somewhere" and "Tired" about finding a better place spiritually and getting emotionally exhausted by that search, but my favourite song on the album is "Busy" which portraits an old friend who has become 'busy', meaning that the material securities of life have become more important than staying in touch with old friends and old ideas. "Almost happy" is a good album, but in my humble opinion, to soft to finally be K's Choice major breakthrough (I don't think they will fit in any format for the US radio stations, who are all specialized in music sorts) , but it will be appreciated by the true music lover as it is by me and I grade it with an 8.0 .

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