Jump to content

The Happiest Man Alive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Happiest Man Alive
Studio album by
Released1 April 1996
Recorded1990s
GenreLo-fi/Indie
Length60:09
LabelBaby Bird Recordings
ProducerStephen Jones
Baby Bird chronology
Fatherhood
(1995)
The Happiest Man Alive
(1996)
Dying Happy
(1996)

The Happiest Man Alive was the fourth of five albums of home-made recordings, released by Stephen Jones under the name Baby Bird in 1996.

It was originally a limited edition release, but is now available as part of the 2002 CD box set The Original Lo-Fi. The album includes a version of the song "Candy Girl", subsequently a UK top-ten hit for Jones' band Babybird (written as one word).

Liner notes

[edit]

All songs recorded on a 4-track tape recorder no bigger than a VCR. No Casio keyboards, no bellows-operated jazz synthesisers, no calor gas amplifiers have been used in these recordings. My attitude to resourcefulness-dictated-by-poverty never quite ran to stretching elastic bands over a washing-up bowl; though this technique, however tempting, is probably closer in spirit to Baby Bird than to musicianship.

The Happiest Man Alive is quality control on the grandest scale imaginable.

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]

"...an oblique sadist of spectacular talent. The Happiest Man Alive has an entire central nervous system of its own. It's a Frankenstein's monster of an album, gruesome and miraculous, stitched together from what would appear to be fragments of a dozen different psyches lodged inside one head." - Melody Maker

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks written and composed by Stephen Jones.

  1. "Razorblade Shower" – 4:06
  2. "Sundial in a Tunnel" – 2:52
  3. "Little White Man" – 2:24
  4. "Halfway Up the Hill" – 4:36
  5. "Horsesugar" – 2:49
  6. "Please Don't Be Famous" – 3:30
  7. "Louise" – 2:31
  8. "Seagullably" – 2:54
  9. "Copper Feel" – 3:27
  10. "Dead in Love" – 3:50
  11. "Candy Girl" – 3:46
  12. "Gunfingers" – 2:45
  13. "Married" – 0:11
  14. "I Took a Drug" – 4:56 (not listed on the CD)
  15. "In the Country" – 2:47
  16. "Planecrash Xmas" – 3:14
  17. "This Beautiful Disease" – 4:08
  18. "You'll Get a Slap" – 3:16
  19. "In The Morning" – 2:12

Personnel

[edit]
  • Stephen Jones – Instruments, Artwork
  • Colin Bradley – Tarted-Up-by
  • DED Associates – Artwork
  • D. Jones – Model

References

[edit]
  1. ^ The Happiest Man Alive (Review) at AllMusic. Retrieved July 12, 2014.