The South coast three-piece have made it their mission to provide escapism from the endless drudgery of daily life. On second full length How Not To Be Happy, they take tales of mundanity and spin them into pop-flecked, grungey odes to the misery with tongues planted firmly in cheek.
Opener ‘I Can’t Hear Myself Think’ features snarling vocals and a chorus hook that’ll stick in your head for days. Not only that but the quick pacing lends plenty of energy despite the more morose lyrical topics. Lines such as “Bringin’ me down / Bringin’ me down / Look at me now” suggest refusal to be held down and to continue doing things your own way. ‘Work So Hard’ is a sarcastic take on being a slave to the grind, opening with a simple but effective bass lick with short stabs of guitar.
‘No One Gives A Fuck’ once again opens with a fast-moving bass but the guitars are more prominent and are imbued with a sense of sheer fun; opening line ‘it’s been a hell of a week” sets the scene succinctly for the angst to come.It’s a frank discussion of how the world is often uncaring, with the refrain of “no one gives a fuck about your feelings” making perfectly clear that we’re often left to fend for ourselves, no matter the personal struggles we might be going through.
Thematically, the band realised that while people might read one self help book, that rarely – if ever – fixes them, so they end up constantly reading them, looking for some magic escape. With that in mind, they set out to create its exact opposite, which lead to the title How Not To Be Happy and their wanting to escape from the drudgery and boredom.
Sonically, Gloo don’t do anything particularly original; we’ve heard this sound before so many times, as popularised by Nirvana and plagiarised by countless others. While it’s unoriginal, it is however still very well written and executed; you can hear the tongue planted firmly in cheek and the band enjoying themselves playing music they want to play and escaping from the daily grind. While How Not To Be Happy doesn’t break any new ground musically and is content to walk paths already well-trodden, the enthusiasm and buoyant songwriting serves up half an hour of easy escapism.