ALBUM REVIEW: Happier Now – Movements

Four albums into their career, MOVEMENTS are tracing where and who they are as a band on Happier Now. You’ll find plenty of the heart-on-sleeve vulnerability that has made MOVEMENTS so beloved, and paired with their melancholic, melodic sensibility, there’s a lot to recognise as signature MOVEMENTS in the album’s DNA.

Dissolve Me is quintessential MOVEMENTS and easily a highlight amidst their entire discography. It’s melodically dynamic and punchy in its approach, with catchy hooks, pounding drums and sweeping guitars that wrap you up in the track’s world. Patrick Miranda’s vocals carry the kind of earnest and vulnerable lyricism that the band have been curating over the years. It’s a true shining example of who MOVEMENTS are at their best. Across the rest of the album, you can’t help but wish for this punchiness to return. Tracks like Ill At Ease pick up the speed and force again, and offer a real sense of catharsis in their hooks. Equally, on title track Happier Now emotional currents reach their peaks when Miranda’s vocals hit a punchiness in their flow.

But for the most part, MOVEMENTS lean into grungier, moodier tones for Happier Now. A darker album both thematically and sonically, there are times where this works beautifully. Flowerbed is a strange little track in the album’s centre, with compelling guitar lines and unique melodic approaches. Meanwhile, the stripped back track Spellbound is a haunting breath amidst the noise.

All this being said, you can’t help but feel like MOVEMENTS have fallen into a bit of a formula. Moody guitars and heart-on-their-sleeve lyrics have found them their place as a band, and on Happier Now, it’s what they are showing the most. Slower paced tracks like Everything Is Fine carry this into the album and it dominates the rest of the record. It’s a formula that they do well, but they’re not exactly pushing it to anything new on Happier Now, and because of this, the album becomes quite repetitive quite fast. Lyrics that should be gut-punching fall a bit flat, and for all of the album’s ideas of anxiety and disillusionment, there would be a real opportunity to push this moody melancholia that extra step to reach a reckoning, but it never quite gets there. 

There’s some truly special moments on Happier Now, and some moments that stand out amongst their whole discography as highlights. When it pulls into dynamic and hauntingly melancholic avenues, it offers a truly special look into where their sound can take them, even if it is only ever fleeting.

Rating: 6/10

Happier Now is out now via Fearless Records. 

Like MOVEMENTS on Facebook.