Happy Trash Culture - Comparing The Comfort
Stockholm based Happy Trash Culture have looked upon influences from early 90’s rock/punk bands like Sonic Youth, and added a grunge hard-core sound to create a debut with little difference.
I am sitting here at the computer, listening to ‘Comparing The Comfort’ by Happy Trash Culture as I write this review and to be honest, it is playing havoc on my mind. As I listen, the majority of the tracks all sound awfully similar in the fact that they scream and scream down a microphone while playing electric guitar and pound on drums in time your heart beat.
On the bands official website it states “Happy Trash Culture do not claim to sound different to every other band they just believe other bands don't sound like HTC” • huh. Frankly, I listen to this release and I hear aspects that have been tried time and time again which never really made an impact on this listener the first time and certainty do not do it this time either.
Each of the tracks follows the same series’ of events. They are mainly concerned with effectively making all listeners lose their hearing through a number of ways. Firstly the electric base lines and guitars, rolling introductions such as that on ‘In The Clear’. Then there is the vibrating effect that ‘Fine’ has on a listener. Secondly are the screaming and quite booming vocals that come with the majority of tracks. ‘Plastic Animals’ and ‘Empty Shell’ are examples of this. The deep voice that is boasting though ‘Tada’ and the ruggedness that seeps into ‘All Of Me’ make little difference. At one point though, things do begin to brighten up a tad. Forgive me for saying this but the vocals that accompany the melodies of ‘Paralyzed Paradise’ could easily be mistaken for an early Cobain sound, with a Nirvana essence imparted on this track at times. This number is probably the highlight of the album.
A few others points of interest include a more musically and vocally focused ‘Finding New Places’, a more enjoyable ‘Gill The Refill’ which seems more precise in it aim to involve a listener with level standards of sound and ‘Empty Shell’ could be considered a little frantic, making my hands a little jumpy as I type.
If you are going to produce and album, what really is the point of having each and every track sound similar to the one before and the one following? Much variation is needed and a little less of the ear shrieking screams would do wonders for Happy Trash Culture.