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Kid606, "Happiness"
Kid606 has never quite fit into a particular narrative as an artist, which I have always felt was the strongest attribute to surviving as an electronic producer in the flooded market of similarly supertalented electronic producers. Equally brooding, romantic, humored, and flat-out destructive, Miguel De Pedro makes no effort to coordinate releases, or to eschew the fleeting moods and odd moments that fill any life of a grown adult and derive inspiration from any and all of them. Happiness is another one of his "heart on sleeve" albums, full of airy downtempo compositions similar to P.S. I Love You or Resilience, which means that fans of the softer end of his catalog will probably love it and fans of hyperactive scene destroying genius nonsense (myself included) will mostly only tolerate it.
Happiness comes at the tail end of a lot of personal changes for De Pedro, who has recently relocated to Los Angeles, and much of the press around the album will make note of this. It is not particularly new territory, however; PS I Love You was the most endearing and exquisitely brief of his more emotional excursions, and some of his older songs ("Parenthood," "For When Yr Just Happy To Be Alive") have been demonstrating his knack for simpler, more idyllic compositions since back in the early 2000s. It seems strange to say but a wistful Kid606 is often best handled in small doses; those songs were great because they lay at the opposite end of a barrage of rambunctious breakbeats and appropriated ragga grooves. They stood out because they did not have to be there, because they were an oasis of sincerity and exploration that showed Miguel's emotional and technical range and because there was an implication that something important had to be said, if only briefly. Those softer moments were Kid606's self-therapy in practice; a catharsis for a frustrated artist who sometimes got tired of their own schtick.
There are a number of solid songs on the album that make a good case for it being culled down as an EP. "Coronado Bay Breezin'" basically succeeds where the first three songs on the album fail; a bit of early afternoon beach-drive downtempo with a smart balance of empty space and manipulated effects to undercut the sparseness of the melodies. "Happiness Is A Warm Kitten" and "If I am only allowed one song on the album with cut up female vocals then this song is it" fill the quota for tongue in cheek song titles along with being genuinely pleasant slices of ambient electronica. "Taco Time" and equally alliterative "Tarsier Treehouse" are all too brief highlights as well, all clipped loops of thick fuzz and fake strings fumbling around in processed uncertainty, masquerading as interludes. Happiness does not demonstrate any new range of talents or moods, though. It just reinforces the same things we already knew.
For the most part I can not help but think that as technological improvements and stylistic shifts have settled into a comfortable equilibrium, some of De Pedro's edge as an innovator has suffered for it. He was functioning at his best when he was pushing against the boundaries of how and why music in the scene was being made. No longer moving and changing, Happiness represents little more than a staid devotion to a kind of inoffensive electronica that has always been in need of a serious sea change. This is the last thing to expect from a Kid606 album, so while it is impossible to hate something so aimlessly pretty, it also does not offer enough to grab onto to earn any kind of lasting attention.
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