The Aliens - The Happy Song

If the first minute of insistent jangling and 'la la las' isn't enough to have you reaching for the whisky and sleeping pills, you might think again after being smacked over the head with a chorus that consists of 1129 mentions of the word 'happy'. Briefly teasing the ears with something that sounds a bit like blues guitar, this, along with everything else, is squelched back into obscurity by the vocals. Lurching between a kind of faux-troubadour tremolo and Primals-esque brit pop posturing, Gordon Anderson's voice was enough to wipe the smile right off my face. I was happy when it ended. [Caroline Hurley]