RETROSPECTIVE

Happy The Man had the great misfortune of just coming into being at the same time that all of the major record labels were discovering, with the help of rock "journalists", that the public wanted (or were being told that they want by the above mentioned "journalists"), punk and disco. These brilliant minds found that they could pawn of cheaply produced records by groups that couldn't play to save their lives, and groups that came up with one lick, increased the bass EQ, and played that one riff until the polyester proles' heads went numb.

Therefore, this great band only released two LPs before calling it quits (two CDs of demos, one from before their records, and one from after, have since been released - and their comeback CD a few years ago). That means this single CD is able to hold most of the two albums and a few tracks from the CD of demos for the third album.

The songs show was a great and unique band HTM was. The songs are somewhere between fusion and symphonic prog, with a flair towards inventiveness. The songs can get a little bit lighter than I like at times, but they usually migrate away from that before too long.

Favorite tracks on this are Stumpy Meets The Firecracker In Stencil Forest, a roller coaster of a song, and New York Dream's Suite, one of the most grandiose songs by this band.