Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch
The rhythm section makes Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch more interesting than its familiar guitar sound first suggests. Duncan Coutts' bass and Jeremy Taggart's drums provide movement inside the songs, allowing Our Lady Peace to shift between quiet tension and sudden force without losing their balance.
One Man Army puts that partnership near the front. The opening sound gives way to a verse carried by bass and percussion, and the guitar becomes more forceful when the song needs a larger frame. The stops and returns have a clear purpose. They make the chorus feel like a release from pressure already established below the vocal.
Is Anybody Home? changes the relationship between loud and quiet more playfully. Its guitar effects provide an immediately recognisable texture, while the softer refrain creates a pause inside the song's agitation. The track is catchy without making its unease disappear.
Thief works through a more restrained arrangement. The picked guitar and quiet drumming leave Raine Maida's voice exposed, giving the song a fragile emotional centre. His unusual phrasing matters here because it seems connected to a specific feeling, rather than simply acting as a signature sound.
Elsewhere, that signature can become too much. The extreme upper-register singing on Consequence of Laughing is striking, but it can draw attention away from the music's other details. Some songs also return to contrasts that the album has already used effectively, making the band's identity seem more fixed than its instrumental ability requires.
Stealing Babies offers a welcome complication at the end. Its shifts toward a jazzier passage and the more turbulent finish suggest possibilities beyond the established quiet verse and forceful chorus. The change is not entirely smooth, but the willingness to disturb the record's pattern is valuable.
Happiness... contains strong songs and some excellent playing, even when the sequence does not sustain a clear development. Its best moments happen when the bass, drums and guitar are allowed to shape the emotion alongside Maida. That shared responsibility gives the music a depth that the most emphatic singing cannot supply on its own.
