Music and Lyrics
The songs on Happiness... focus on a lighter melody, often following vocalist Raine Maida's extreme range of octaves sung in a falsetto-like manner. He could travel from one octave to another with ease and very smoothly. This created a very surreal effect to the songs, best shown on songs like "Happiness & the Fish", "Blister" and "Lying Awake", much like "Big Dumb Rocket" from Clumsy. The overall sound was quite a departure from their first album, Naveed, featuring very toned-down guitars and the addition of synthesizers and other instruments, typical in most alternative rock albums.
Raine explained the album's overall concept in an early 2000 interview with Vue Weekly:
| “ | There was definitely a lot of talk around the studio about death and mortality and spirituality and trying to figure out what happens after this. That’s the one question we can’t answer, and it’s interesting. It’s obvious that it’s something that haunts me on a personal level, as I try to fall asleep in some hotel room alone somewhere. I’d rather try to figure it out now than do the typical ‘Turn 65 and try to find God because I’m afraid of dying’ business. I don’t think life should be like that. There has to be some attention to detail and substance throughout your life. The whole Happiness... thing stems from that. It’s about trying to find something in a superficial world that isn’t superficial. | ” |
The lyrics on the album are mostly written in the first-person. The lyrics are usually about unusual themes—laziness, isolation, loneliness and happiness, most explained in a metaphorical manner. The track "Lying Awake" was said to be about Benny Hinn, and how Raine Maida viewed him as a con-artist, trying to scam people into religion. "Annie" is said to be about a girl who is made an outcast, and ends up killing everybody in the end, similar to Pearl Jam's song "Jeremy" on their début album Ten. The band has said in many interviews that "Thief" was about Mina Kim, a girl the band knew who was dying of a brain tumor.
Read more about this topic: Happiness... Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch
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