Happy Happy

Personnel: Leafcutter John (guitar); Patrick Wolf (viola, piano, background vocals); Jo Apps (synthesizer, bass synthesizer, background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Leafcutter John.
Recording information: The Exchange.
Listening to the third album by Kristian Craig Robinson is to hear someone being torn by two sets of friends. There is Robinson's old posse, the anti-social, anti-music knob twiddlers over at Planet Mu, who released the first two Capitol K albums. And there're his new friends, the band playing, heart-on-sleeve wearing, indie popsters like Patrick Wolf, guitarist John Burton, bassist Jo Apps and drummer Adam Stringer, with whom Robinson toured before recording this album. The result is a man whose attentions and intentions are divided. At times, he is able to bring both sides together, such as on the opening "Love in Slow Motion" that focuses on a cruising guitar strum, but is supported by all manifestation of bleeps and blurps, and "Tiger" which finds Robinson and Apps' emotive vocals wrapped in nothing but electronic abstraction. But just as often, the two sides clash, like on the poser-booty crash of the title track and the utterly schizophrenic "Fools Around." This contradiction of pop desires and electronic requirements is plaguing more and more bedroom artists who are rediscovering the powers of a cool band. And there is yet to be the definitive album that brings the two together. Perhaps that's how it's meant to be, but Happy Happy takes a good shot at making everyone play nice. And there are glimmering moments when you'd think we can all just get along. ~ Joshua Glazer