Dave Smallen's Happiness: An Album Worth Listening To
Dave Smallen's third full-length album Happiness is perhaps his best so far. There is no weak track on the album, and the songs on Happiness showcase his talent as a songwriter, composer, and also the range and power of his voice. Smallen has proven he can carry out complex and haunting compositions with tracks like Georgia, Can You Hear Me? on his freshman album with Street to Nowhere , and NYC off his sophomore album Everything Changes and Nothing Changes . But what makes his latest album remarkable is how he showcases perhaps an even greater range of emotion and thought on this album than in his prior ones. Take for example The Rain , which I think is the best track on the album. Smallen sings the first line "My dad sold his car in 1972." With song writing and fiction, having a catchy first line is the hallmark to a good song. Hearing these first seven words, the listener asks himself, "Why did his dad sell his car in 1972?" This detail is somethin...
