I thought I’d bump this to say that there’s going to be a 2-hour online radio special tomorrow (well, today, Tuesday) featuring songs from the new album, songs from her previous 10 albums, and a brand new interview (her first audio interview in 9 years).
Here’s the notice from the station (it’s a progressive rock station):
This will be streamable via the web, but I’ll be making it available at one of my web sites afterwards for people who miss it. No, I don’t have anything to do with the interview/special. It was a surprise to me. I’d never heard of Delicious Agony before this came up. There are all kinds of reviews appearing on progressive rock web sites, which is interesting. I never would have considered Happy in that genre, but hey, whatever gets her heard, I’m all for it. The fella who conducted the interview is giving me a copy to share.
Btw, the album is up at CD Baby so I’m not doing my pre-release thing anymore. CD Baby sold out their stock lightning-fast, but will definitely have more in a couple of days.
Overall, the theme here is abandonment and emotional expression from an outsider/outcast of society, yet finding beauty in the midst of sadness.
One And Many: Starts abruptly • mysterious • somewhat reminiscent of her earlier work • makes full use of the technology available to her • Also reminiscent of Walt Whitman’s poem “I Contain Multitudes” • amazing guitar at the end
Little Brother: Complex yet coherent; danceable at times!
Find Me: is how a stray cat must feel when he is lost and alone.
She Won’t Go: Explorations of her inner mind/psyche
Here & Hereafter: Gorgeous harmonies and spacey synth sounds • smooth as silk • very cinematic
Charlie: Explores the low end of her vocal range • Lots of contrapuntal tension and funky backbeats
Can’t Let Go: Reflective, hard-driving, pulsating, free-flowing, gripping.
Queen: is all about how the outsiders of society are drawn to her as a “leader” while still feeling like an outsider herself. She realizes that she cannot help them all, yet accepts the role that has been thrust upon her.
Treehouse: Mysterious and beautiful song about building your own exclusive world within a world.
Chosen One: Melancholy narrative about being a perpetual bridesmaid, never the bride.
Fall: Dreamy and smooth song about the current season.
Wow, what a nice surprise DaveRaver! Thank you for taking the time.
If anyone’s interested in hearing what he’s talking about, these songs, either as full-length versions or snippets, are on this album’s MySpace page.
I like that, it’s very true. This album was written at a very chaotic time in her life, so though she always writes the music first, then figures out what the songs are about based on the music and only then comes up with the words, there’s a lot of melancholy in it simply because of what she was going through. She’s all better now and couldn’t be in a more comfortable and joyous place, so I’m very curious as to what her next album will be like.
I’m not familiar with that poem. I’ll have to look it up. This is about how weird and frustrating it is to have different parts of your psyche pushing and pulling you. It’s like having multiple personalities all who want different things.
This song keeps inserting itself into my brain as a song virus. On first listen I wouldn’t have guessed it had the power to do that. It’s not even my favorite song and yet it keeps popping into my head.
If the poor little thing were in the middle of the ocean, about ready to drown. One of the saddest songs ever. This is on the same theme as Kate Bush’s The Ninth Wave, but Happy’s not trying to rip off Kate, she just wanted to explore the subject.
Yep. A sister song to “One And Many” and “Can’t Let Go.”
This is a song that would make for a great hit, even though it’s not going to be. It’s something that would play well in the background, and sound like a breezy love song. A closer listen would reveal something deeper, with the harmonies and interesting instrumentation. An even closer listen and look at the lyrics would reveal something even deeper in that far from being a breezy love song, it’s (to me) a crushingly sad song about the fear of losing someone you love. It’s so simple, yet so remarkable.
I think she sings some of the lowest notes she’s ever sung in this. This song was inspired by Robert Crumb’s brother Charles Crumb, written after she saw the documentary Crumb.
Nice description! This is about how as an abused child she developed coping mechanisms that served her well then and helped her survive, but that hang around and give her problems now that she’s an adult and doesn’t need them anymore.
Someone said to me that this is an awfully egotistical song, but it’s not meant to be. Broken souls are drawn to her music (especially her early music) because they see themselves in her songs, and find solace in her lyrics, voice, music, and they see her as a beacon of hope too. That’s not everybody who listens to her, lots of happy, successful people who’ve never had crushing problems love her music too, but this specific song is about the ones who do.
Kind of a sister song to “Queen” but mostly about a childhood where she was knocked around, abused, excluded and fucked over. It’s not egotistical to want to be surrounded by people who like you, something she never had as a child.
This should be subtitled “The Bridesmaid Song.” How many songs have there been about bridesmaids? She wrote this years before she met her husband, so it’s several years out of date, but it’s so beautiful I’m glad she included it. It’s really more about wanting someone to choose you out of all the women in the world, rather than pining for a wedding, as such.
She also has songs called “Summer” and “Winter” so now we only need one about the Spring.
Agreed (but of course, I would, right?) and thank you for saying it.
As a recent convert I think this thread needs bumping.
There ia a ton of Happy’s music on YouTube now, which will give her some more exposure and hopefully generate more interest in this wonderful musician.
A nice interview giving a little background on her - Feed The Fire
Slowly building a Happy library, “The Keep” being the most recent addition and my current favourit.
As with most things I discovered her by a random comment on one of my other obsessions, Mylène Farmer, who was described as “Ecto”. Following this back to source revealed the previously unknown Happy Rhodes.
The similarity is very tenuous but a fortunate association.
(Hot dog! I didn’t have to pay him either!) I’m glad you discovered Happy Myglaren. Thank you for posting.
I’m glad you found her work on YouTube too. Out of the 50+ live clips on YouTube (she’s never made an actual video to any of her songs) my husband shot all but the interview you linked to, the “Temporary and Eternal” clip mentioned earlier, and only the “audience participation” clip from Ectofest '07 (since someone else had a video camera at that concert too so there are a few other clips not by him). That version of “The Chariot” isn’t the best quality or performance because she didn’t feel well and they kept having equipment problems which threw them off their stride, but it’s the first time she’s ever told what that song was about which made it important historically (for fans, of course). Until then, I had no idea, and now when I listen to the song I feel like crying for that poor kid.
Thanks Equipoise.
She is indeed a wonderful musician, all the more impressive for not wanting to milk her superb talent for fame and fortune - our loss inasmuch as getting to see her perform live becomes that much more difficult. A very rare individual.
I did try and sign up to get the CDs from her website but never got a response from them, don’t know why. The Cds obtained so far have been sourced from eBay - can’t get them here (UK).
Must be great to be so closely associated with such an incredible person.
That’s one reason we’ve put up so many YouTube videos. In her 20+ year career, she’s never performed outside of the US, and only once west of Chicago (she did a live in-studio radio performance in New Mexico once, but that doesn’t count).
So are you Myglaren, so are you.
Gah! I hate hearing that. She has the worst web site store in the universe. Please tell me what you tried to get and when and I’ll see if I can get her to figure out what went wrong. She’s just not an internet person outside of e-mail and doesn’t pay much attention to what’s going on online, but I have been able to get her to act on problems in the past so give me details.
You might try CD Baby too. She’s slowly but surely trying to get all of her albums on there. Right now 6 of her 11 albums are available from there.
She’s a wonderful person. Frustrating, at times, because she doesn’t care about having a “career” as others might envision, but in the end I have to respect her way of doing things and keep hoping that others discover her without her helping to make it happen (one fan at a time, like you). She is a sweetie though, beautiful inside and out. Funny as hell too (did you see the clips for “All Things,”“Down Down,”“Come Undone,”“Look For The Child,”“Jork,” and her version of “Lily of the Valley” (where she starts in the wrong key), which are a few that show her humor either before or after the song.