OTR: Catherine Wheel - Happy Days

[illusionofjoy]

In 1995 Catherine Wheel would release their third and least listenable album, Happy Days. Okay, maybe I am too harsh since most people consider Wishville the Catherine Wheel's least listenable album. Let's call it a draw, eh?

Happy Days takes the fuzz flirtation of Chrome and amplifies it tenfold. Both Storm Thorgerson and Gil Norton have returned, but I'm often left wondering what happened to the band I loved as I listen to this disc. My biggest problem with Happy Days is that the majority of it sounds like any number of mid-1990s generic hard/modern/alternative rock groups. For any band but Catherine Wheel this would be a good album; but the group sold themselves short on this set.

There is gold, if you're willing to dig for it. "Heal" is beautifully grandiose, "Crank" brought up an octave with it's tempo somewhat slowed. "Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck" provides some desperately needed, if cruel, quiet on an all too noisy album. Finally "Judy Staring At The Sun," which features Tanya Donelly singing on the chorus is a beautiful slice of indie rock - more of which would have been welcome on Happy Days. Three great songs against eleven mediocre songs is not a good ratio.

Obviously, I don't listen to this disc very much. I bought my copy used and it has a promotional cutout on the bar code with a radio station sticker on the back: "Revolution 104.7." A little Wikipedia digging informs me that at the time Happy Days came out, the station's call letters WXRB. The 1990s apparently weren't a good decade for the station as it changed formats and ownership several times. Today things still suck, as the station is now 24/7 conservative talk radio.