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Happy (Mitski song)
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Wikipedia article
"'Happy'" is a song by Japanese-American singer Mitski, released in 2016 as the second single from her fourth studio album, 'Puberty 2'. A music video for the song was released on May 23 that year, which 'Paste' described as "chilling", while 'Vice' called is anything but happy.
'Stereogum' wrote "Sonically, the song follows an opposite trajectory, building from eerie metallic clattering and mournful whispers to an exultant explosion of guitar and saxophone. By the end, though, the excitement has died down and the eerie clattering returns, as it always does."
Background
About the song, Mitski said "Happiness fucks you. Once it's in your hands, you try to hold onto it, but the nature of happiness is that it passes through and eventually leaves, and something else sadness, anger, a low after the high has to follow. This song is about this exhaustive and exhausting cycle, and how sometimes one would rather not have any of it at all than be constantly thrown about by the waves of these fleeting states."
'DIY' wrote that the song is about "what happens once happiness has fled the scene; the tidying up, sadness, and exhausting anger that lives and thrives on the flip-side."
Reception
'Pitchfork' wrote that "Happy" might be one of Mitski's bleakest songs yet, and further wrote "Mitski resists psychic death by constantly pushing forth into bolder textures, refusing to be meek and sedated even as joy feels compromised: a stubborn drum machine begets chuntering percussion, the tentative melody finds its feet, and brash saxophones push everything up a gear."
AllMusic considered the song to be one of the highlights from 'Puberty 2', writing that it's "full of bite and irony as she describes a hook-up and his stealthy exit in a context of grooving rhythms, a catchy melody, and poppy saxophone solos. Through it all in the background -- though it's brought to the fore in the intro and outro -- is the relentless pounding of a drum."
References
Category:2016 singles
Category:2016 songs
Category:American indie rock songs
Category:Dead Oceans singles
Category:Mitski songs
Category:Songs written by Mitski
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