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Clare Bowditch seems like a genuinely beautiful person. She has a social conscience, she’s intelligent and globally aware and full of life – and if all that isn’t enough, she’s an absolutely inspired musician. In this album alone, there are moody tracks, ecstatic ones, completely jazzy ones – and in other albums she’s done rock, she’s even done stuff verging on dance – the thing is, she does it all so well.
She has the ability that few possess to be utterly versatile, in songwriting and music making. Her voice is versatile too, her range is phenomenal and she always sounds comfortable, even when she ventures out of her comfort zone. Bowditch spent a year learning about happiness, after which she came back into the music world rejuvenated: “I simply stand before you today as someone who sleeps a little more, tours a little less, eats my veggies, stops to breath, sings under my breath, listens a little more, forgives a little quicker, and more than any of this, I chose happiness daily.” The Winter I Chose Happiness is a collection of stories about happiness; about life.
The opening track is a short, jaunty jazz number, “Let’s Be Happy Together”. It’s brilliantly old school, with saxophone and piano solos a plenty, and there’s even some scat thrown in at the end. Bowditch’s voice is unbelievably sixties – I had never heard her sing like that, and she really pulls it off. This is a song to make you smile.
“Amazing Life” is a quiet acoustic ballad – just acoustic guitar and vocals, it’s stripped back and honest. “Your Love Walks” again starts off with just acoustic guitar and vocals, but builds into a pretty, heartfelt gem of a song. The last thirty seconds of the track are a jazz reprise kind of thing – I’m not entirely sure what the motive behind the reprise was because it doesn’t seem to gel with the track as a whole, but it definitely doesn’t detract from the song; instead, it made me curious.
“One Little River” evokes a feeling of hope – it is unashamed pop and it is fantastic. The trumpet, drums, piano and harmonic accompaniment create a warm and lush sound, and this song really embodies Bowditch, in my mind.
“Cocky Lady” is again, a wonderful jazz number, and it reinforces the fact that Bowditch is incredibly versatile. I really love seeing the jazz side of her – especially since it’s in such great contrast to her last release, Modern Day Addiction.
“The One” and “You Will Know” are both really cute songs – there is a great theme of love and happiness throughout the album and in every song you can easily pick it out. And of course, “You Make Me Happy”, the already very popular lead single of the album after being featured on the TV show Offspring – it’s got an infectious melody and is so emotional, it really reels you in.
All the songs on The Winter I Chose Happiness are really lovely, but the stand out for me is the second track, “Thin Skin”. Five seconds in, I was already loving it – easily the darkest song on the record, it’s moody and passionate. There is a brilliant lift from the verse into the chorus, and I feel it shows the other side of happiness, with hook lyrics such as “We should be so happy… We could be so happy”. There is a personality to this song, brought by the instrumentation and the hand claps as it builds towards the end. It made such an impression on me in the first listen only – and that is one of the hallmarks of a song. This is not a grower – you don’t need a few listens to get into it – it grabs you straight away. Just excellent; I can’t praise “Thin Skin” enough!
All in all, The Winter I Chose Happiness is a great fifth album. It’s engaging, exciting and Clare Bowditch’s voice is just great. The songwriting is different to previous records, but I guess that’s what makes it exciting – that even after doing four albums, Bowditch still has the ability to change it up. I have a feeling that she’ll never fail to inspire and surprise us in future releases. She’s really an asset to the Australian music scene. In her own beautiful words: “May You Remember Your Happiness, and not stop searching until you have.”
Review score: 8.8 out of 10
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