(2022) The Muffs - Really Really Happy (Expanded Edition)  


Review:
When the Muffs finished their 1999 tour obligations, they were at a low point. No manager, no label, seemingly not many career prospects left. It would have been easy to give up the game after eight solid years and four sterling albums of punk-meets-power pop goodness. They weren’t quite ready to pack it though and kept playing the occasional show, even while the band’s leader Kim Shattuck formed a new band with cub’s Lisa Marr called the Beards. At the same time, she kept cranking out songs for the Muffs and after the band hooked up with Five Foot Two, the label run by Anna Waronker and Charlotte Caffey, they got a chance to record them. To make Really Really Happy the group eschewed the studio experience – one that hadn’t always been pleasant in the past — and tracked everything except the drums in Shattuck’s kitchen. The new recording set up doesn’t change much, the band still delivers crunchy and raw slices of punk powered by Shattuck’s gnarly guitar and sugar-snarled vocals. There is a layer of grunge gloss missing from the mix, and that’s just fine. The band were able to make it through that era with their facilities intact, some might even say they sound more immediate and pop-friendly without the fancy studio treatment. Shattuck certainly sounds on the top of her game vocally, spitting out venom on tough rockers like “Freak Out” or “The Whole World.” She also proves up to some of the stylistic gambles the band takes. The bouncy put-down”Don’t Pick On Me” is a rollicking blast, “Something Inside” is a painfully honest ballad that is well served by the stripped down production, “My Awful Dream” proves that the band are just as powerful minus electricity, and the doo wop-meets-sea shanty “Fancy Girl” is a showcase for Shattuck’s more intimate vocal style. Add in a few glimmering pop songs (“Everybody Loves You”, “How I Pass the Time”) that float by on a cloud and it makes for a record that explores more sides of the band than any record that came before. It may lack some of the thumping power of earlier work, but it makes up for it with variety and some really great songs. Really Really Happy is the start of the second half of the band’s career, and it’s a really really strong one. The Omnivore reissue of the album includes a few songs that were included on international editions and a couple of throwaway punk ditties, including the one that explores the timeless sentiment “I Hate Gym.” It also has touching liner notes from bassist Ronnie Barnett and drummer Roy McDonald. The true find that makes this essential for Muffs fans is the inclusion of a second disc of demos Shattuck made for the other members of the band. Recorded herself with a drum machine, the songs are raw, rough and, as Barnett basically says in the notes, fully formed. If it wasn’t for the joy she had playing with the band, she could easily have been a solo artist and these recordings are the proof. It’s a toss up which version of the album is better, if pressed one might concede that a little bit of polish does help bring out the shine. Regardless, it’s amazing to have the chance to hear the demos as the other members of the band did. — AMG


         


Track List:

Disc 1:
1. Freak Out
2. A Little Luxury
3. Really Really Happy
4. Something Inside
5. Everybody Loves You
6. Don’t Pick On Me
7. And I Go Pow
8. My Lucky Day
9. Fancy Girl
10. How I Pass The Time
11. Slow
12. I’m Here I’m Not
13. The Whole World
14. My Awful Dream
15. By My Side
16. Oh Poor You
17. The Story Of Me
Bonus Tracks:
18. My Whore
19. Uh Oh
20. Under The Covers In Jammies
21. My Imagination *
22. Just The Beginning *
23. I Hate Gym *

Disc 2:
New Improved Kim Shattuck Demos: *
1. Really Really Happy
2. Freak Out
3. Everybody Loves You
4. Something Inside
5. And I Go Pow
6. Don’t Pick On Me
7. The Story Of Me
8. A Little Luxury
9. By My Side
10. Fancy Girl
11. How I Pass The Time
12. I’m Here I’m Not
13. Even Now
14. Slow
15. My Lucky Day
16. Oh Poor You
* Previously Unissued


Media Report:
Genre: power-pop, punk, reissue, rock
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits


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