Album Review: Barrie – Happy To Be Here

Barrie
Happy To Be Here
Winspear
★★★★

Barrie’s debut disseminates from uncertainty and leads into discovery, creating a safe space out of new terrain. For us, it’s an internal feeling. For them, it’s external experience. As cliche as this seems, I cannot think of a better way to describe Happy to Be Here other than breezy pop music. Although accurate, I feel a descriptive like that does not give Barrie the justification for its intricacies in musicianship they tuck into each song.

Barrie’s pop is about new beginnings and New York is its epicenter. Happy To Be Here tells the story of a band coming together in the state’s largest city after descending from all over the globe. The album’s divine pop is proper and comforting like a crystalline Saint Etienne piped through speakers during high tea time. Don’t worry though, they mix in dapper mischief with the brazen “Teenager.” The song over-produces sound in the right moment to amplify beats like punctuated prose. They shed sweat for the wild and carefree. Top down, their pop antics blow away in the breeze of rhythmic ecstasy.

Barrie – Darjeeling (Official Video)

Speaking of production, there is a lot going on inside each song, meticulously extrapolating the best in each member and flawlessly mixing these glimmering songs into an oasis of timeless pieces. “Darjeeling” is that sound you want to put your finger on but that sound is on the tip of your tongue.

“Clovers” is dripping with bubbly pop. The song’s bubblegum is almost too sweet until that chorus kicks in, pulling in context that correlates with the rest of the album.

Is “Saturated” a great beach song or is it someone engulfed in the chaos of life? Stop. Breathe. The song lies outside the contingent of urbanization without being consumed by it’s predatory functions. The song is a freeing experience by utilizing soft expressions with unique touches of modular and analog instruments. They create the right mood as much as songs like “Chinatown” or “Geology.”

This is how an album should be played. Happy To Be Here is a blueprint for the moments in life you reach out for. It’s where fantasy and reality collide. Barrie makes music the universe can smile down upon.