Dance Gavin Dance - "Happiness"

[Say Anything]

A few months ago I reviewed Dance Gavin Dance's first full-length album entitled Downtown Battle Mountain. I stated my love for the album, praising it for lead singer Jonny Craig's beautiful vocals and Jonathan Mess' unique scream. Since the release of that album two years ago, Dance Gavin Dance have gotten rid of both Craig and Mess, along with bassist Eric Lodge. The current band consists of five members, with guitarist Will Swan and drummer Matt Mingus being the only members left from the original band.

I picked up their latest album Happiness before listening to the previous self-titled album because I didn't think the new vocalist, Kurt Travis, was capable of doing anywhere near as well as Jonny did. To be honest, I gave up on the band after hearing of Craig's departure. Put simply, what the guys did with Happiness not only fills the shoes of Downtown Battle Mountain, it goes an extra mile with superb song composition and instrumental work.

Kurt Travis does not sound like Jonny. He doesn't have the same high range, nor does he try to pull it off. But the new instrumentals present on Happiness are not as they were on Downtown Battle Mountain. Happiness is more funky and poppy, and Kurt's voice flows almost flawlessly with the new sound. I'll go so far as to say I actually prefer Kurt's voice on the album to how I invision it sounding with Jonny. Kurt isn't as powerful as Jonny, but Happiness needed uniqueness, and Kurt was much more suited for the tracks.

Most noticeable on the new album, however, is the composition and structure of each and every song. I don't know what influenced such a new style, but the guitars, bass, drums, and other instrumentals aren't just noise anymore. Almost every song has a new sort of funk to it not seen on previous records. The guitars have a very technical feel to them, sometimes bordering an electronica style. For the post-hardcore genre, Happiness does not disappoint instrumentally on any tracks.

Guitarist Will Swan took over Mess' job of screaming, and the difference is big. I'm one of the few listeners who enjoyed Mess' screams, but Will's is much bigger in every way. He's deeper, he's angrier, but he's also clearer, and you can actually understand what the guy's saying. It's great, because I find with most screamers their lyrics are unintelligible and you have to take a look in the CD booklet to figure out what message they're trying to get across.

Carl Barker​

The nagging problem I have with this band is that they've never been able to write any lyrics that really make their listeners think. The track "Don't Tell Dave" is ruined with the chorus being simply, "Hey...did you bring your friends? x4, Hey, it's a party baby, hope it never ends...x4". "Strawberry Swisher Pt. 1", a song whose composition and instrumentals are great, is ruined with cheezy one night stand lyrics. There are a few lines that stand out on the album - Will raps on their exit track and his lyrics are awesome - but these rare lines simply can't save the mediocrity displayed in a large portion of the songs.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Happiness album of the year, but I will say it is my favorite Dance Gavin Dance album to date. The band admittedly falls flat lyrically, but I believe this is the only thing holding them back from dominating the post-hardcore genre. Fans of smooth vocals with trippy instrumentals and heavy screams will find peace with Happiness.

Recommendation: Fans of Dance Gavin Dance or any bands in the genre should definitley buy it. It's a great album that remains on repeat after months of listening.

Spoiler: A full list of my reviews can be found here.

An Untitled Story [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.131378]
William Fitzsimmons - "Goodnight" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.131239]
Jonny Craig - "A Dream Is A Question You Don't Know How To Answer" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.131058]
Guardians of Paradise [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.118029]
A Mini Falafel Adventure [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117821]
Dance Gavin Dance - "Downtown Battle Mountain" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117536]
Desert Bus [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117481]
MariAri [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117261]
Super Mario World [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.111158]
Pokemon: First Generation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.103696]
Shining Soul II [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.91839]
Knytt Stories [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.89233]
Star Ocean: Second Evolution [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.88743]
Star Ocean: First Departure [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.83421]
Star Ocean: The Second Story [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.82069]
10 Freeware Game Mini-Reviews [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.81763]

 

[Say Anything]

Also, I apologize in advance if the audio file doesn't load. I've tried around twenty hosts in my past three reviews and every single one is so off-and-on that I've somewhat given up. If anyone has any recommendations, though, I'd appreciate it.

EDIT: Just added a YouTube video instead.

 

[scotth266]

Hmmm. I find no fault with this review: it does a good job of summing up what I could hear from the track that you posted, and it makes an excellent point:

IF YOU'RE GOING TO SCREAM, MAKE SURE I CAN UNDERSTAND IT, IDIOT! Otherwise, it's just white noise and fury, signifying nothing.

Anyway, the song up there is pretty good. I still don't like the screamy bits regardless of their clarity (not a fan of screaming in general), and some of the transitions in the flow of the song can be a little jarring, but when the song settles into something it's very good. The funk stylings are a treat to the ears, and I'm impressed with the bass.

All in all, great review. I'm sort of confused as to how this didn't land a comment at all though: do people just take naps when you post stuff? Then again, since my recent review of Dance In The Vampire Bund also only received one comment (from someone who wanted me to tell them about it) I guess I can't really talk. Sometimes the Review Section is a cruel mistress.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

I'm uncertain of how to comment on this, as an album's context in a group's developing body of work is such a big factor in music and I don't know how important it is. You do a very good job of introducing the bands current state and what their original form was like though.

Something you must keep in mind though is that in a review, unless you've become some kind of personality reviewer like Ebert or Yahtzee with an adoring following, it's best to judge things on their own merits. Sure, the lyrics aren't profound, and by all means point that out, but listing it as an actual problem seems a bit strong when it doesn't seem their intention to provide thought-provoking lyrics, which they've possibly tried in the studio and failed abysmally at.

I'm unfamiliar with the post-hardcore scene, so if meaningful lyrics are commonplace in that genre then disregard that comment.

You've got a couple of those fairly meaningless verbal tics like "I'll go so far as to say" and "To be honest" which could probably be cut, but the writing seems fine to me and sticks to a consistent style. I'm not a huge fan of the predominantly first person style, but it's very balanced and doesn't seem to run into the common problems I see with that method.

 

[Say Anything]

I'm unfamiliar with the post-hardcore scene, so if meaningful lyrics are commonplace in that genre then disregard that comment.

I don't think it's so much the post-hardcore genre as it is music as a whole. I just feel that any band or artist who can't produce meaningful lyrics isn't that great. To be honest I'm not sure how DGD is one of my favorite bands because I care so much about lyrics - I listen to a lot of bands who are musically "alright" but they deliver such powerful lyrics that I end up absolutely loving them.

Thanks scott and pigeon for recognizing this. This is my favorite review I've done so far, so it felt bad when this thing fell past the second page.

 

[G-Virus]

OMG it's like "dance ME dance"!!!

...My name is Gavin. o_o

...HUZZAH!