American progressive rock band from Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA, that was formed in 1973, disbanded in 1979 and reformed in 2000. The band released three albums between 1977 and 1983 (the third was recorded in 1979, but first released in 1983). After a long hiatus, Happy The Man released a new album in 2004 with a new drummer and new additional keyboardist.
It's a bit surprising because I always assumed Kit Watkins was the main compositional force behind those wonderful early albums, but of course he's absent on this one, replaced by a certain David Rosenthal. Despite the switcheroo the music is consistently strong, and perfectly representative progressive rock, quite 70s based, still keyboards dominant, but with the dissonances, the synths, the emotional elements that make it fully compelling, with a great deal of variety, odd changes and interesting arrangements, just as you'd expect. Well, sometimes our expectations are low for these later releases, but in this case they exceed them magnificently.
It starts off with Contemporary Insanity:
I love anything and everything relating to Hawai'i and can't resist posting any track homaging those beautiful Garden of Eden isles of the mid-Pacific, and Maui Sunset really brings it home (those poor folks are still recovering from the horrific fire in Lahaina last year, let's remember that dreadful consequence of climate change's cruelty):
Altogether a wonderful album and a delight to listen to, I will for sure be paying close attention to these tracks in the days to come, or as they say in other places: 'monitoring the situation very closely.'
Wow,had no idea 'bout this one! Thank you
ReplyDeleteHi, the last album of Nederlands MANGROVE sounds sometimes like HAPPY THE MAN, great !!!
ReplyDeleteable to share that one?
Deletewith "We transfer" on your mail adress, is it good ?
ReplyDeletethanks!
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