Happiness... Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

To promote the upcoming release of their album in September, Our Lady Peace performed a live in-studio concert and Q&A which was aired to 12 Canadian radio stations simultaneously utilizing satellite and ISDN technology. Listeners to any of the stations could call in and ask the band members questions. On September 13, 1999 a special listening party was held on a newly redesigned ourladypeace.com where fans could listen to the entire album via streamlink. The band also held an online chat with fans for a Q & A session.

Happiness... was released in Canada on September 21, 1999. The album was very successful in its first week, selling 40,090 copies and debuting at #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart.

Upon its release, Happiness... was panned by many critics who cited it as being over-ambitious and too dour in subject manner. In the band's hometown, Ben Rayner, the reviewer of The Toronto Star said, "...there's something curiously unmoving and dispassionate about it - it's canned angst ordered from some overstocked and increasingly disused alt-rock warehouse outside of Seattle, too studious and sterile to ever really hit you the way rock 'n' roll is supposed to." Leigh Buckley Fountain of the Richmond Times-Dispatch gave the album a B- and positively noted that, "The same catchy melodies, same distracted off-kilter rhythms dominate this album that dominated 1998's "Clumsy." but went on to criticize Maida's vocal performance as being "too experimental". He also had to say about the lyrical content, "One problem with the album is its typically vague, tangential lyrics. Critics have called Maida a "philosopher," but I'm not so sure I'd go all that far. I like what he does, but snippets out of the blue like "Nazis breast feeding" don't do much for me."

David Gerard of the Boston Globe praised the guitar playing from the album, especially on the song "Blister" and also noted how the band had expanded its musical turf. Melissa Maino of The Buffalo News also reviewed the album positively, citing "Thief" as a stand-out track and saying that, "Our Lady Peace's music may be a little predictable, but if it's not broke, don't fix it." In a 2.5 star review, the San Antonio Express-News praised the album for its high energy and subtle textures but criticized the vocals, saying "Raine Maida's overexposed falsetto is grating enough to send borderline psychotics over the edge."