The songs are drop-dead gorgeous, the waves of noise and sound are all-encompassing but arranged perfectly, and there is enough joyous craft and blown-out intensity in the sound to keep it from being just an empty nostalgia trip.
To the Happy Few finds an older, wiser Medicine freed from any limitations of form and style that its original incarnation had to grapple with, since there’s an open playfulness with the structures they use here
As a whole, the album has a wonderful density that reveals a new secret with every listen, melodies buried in caverns of reverb and tricky guitar bits that hide in reversed delay.
The best thing about their new album To The Happy Few is that it manages to sound utterly contemporary.
To the Happy Few will very likely turn out to be one of the best sounding guitar-based albums of the year.
‘To The Happy Few’ might be a fairly transparent attempt to relive Medicine’s salad days, but there are many worse sources they could mine for inspiration.
The resulting album feels fresh and contemporary – as much as any new young guitar band around today – and not at all a retro step.
The expected abrasive nastiness that should go hand in hand with such a noisy band is cast aside in favour of something genuinely light.
To The Happy Few is precise and calculated. It lacks the irrationality and selfishness that gives a record its soul. Medicine have created an album for their listeners. They should have done it for themselves.
for the record i listened to this album like 5 hours ago, just forgot to rate it. last half is much weaker than first half. i like it a lot though.
Favorite tracks: Long As the Sun, It's Not Enough, Burn It, Holy Crimes, The End Of The Line, Butterfly's Out Tonight, Pull the Trigger
Least favorite: All You Need To Know
1 | Long As The Sun 5:14 | |
2 | It's Not Enough 3:18 | |
3 | Burn It 4:10 | |
4 | Holy Crimes 3:17 | |
5 | The End Of The Line 4:15 | 90 |
6 | Butterfly's Out Tonight 4:27 | |
7 | All You Need To Know 3:35 | |
8 | Find Me Always 4:44 | |
9 | Pull The Trigger 3:46 | |
10 | Daylight 4:48 |