Source: The Edmonton Journal, September 18, 1999

OUR LADY PEACE
Happiness...Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch
Sony
***/*****

Another multi-layered album by another Canadian alt-rock group.
Not just any group, mind you. We're talking Our Lady Peace, possibly the second most popular band in the country. (Next to The Tragically Hip, of course.)
No doubt, Happiness... will cement that status and maybe even win the Toronto quartet a few more fans south of the border. With the help of longtime pal and producer Arnold Lanni, the band's third album continues to build on the angst-ridden, soul-searching guitar rock they developed on Naveed and Clumsy.
As with the Matthew Good Band, the members of Our Lady Peace are fond of layering their songs with incidental, but instrumental, sounds. For example, the end of each line on Is Anybody Home? features the quiet shake of what sounds like Santa and his reindeer chugging over the Norht Pole. It doesn't seem like much, but those bells and the band's melodic "wooos" help make the song.
Their love of layers doesn't apply to singer Raine Maida's lyrics. His words are more forthright and likely to please rebellious teens. "Come on take me/Hold your hand/Take a deep breath/Give them the finger," Maida wails on the first single, One Man Army. Cue giggling 13-year-olds.
Maida's vocals are also bereft of the range of emotions displayed by Matthew Good. For the most part, the Our Lady Peace frontman plays up his idiosyncratic, nasal vocal howlings as much as possible: "On-lay wonder why," "They'll leave you w-ay-de-eyed," "Way-ie." (Translation: only, wide-eyed and why.) If only someone would tell me why Maida insists on singing like that, I wouldn't be so wide-eyed. It's fine for a handful of tunes; after 11 it gets tedious.
Apart from that, Happiness... is a fine, worthy effort by Maida and his mates. It won't make many critics' Top 10 lists of the year, but it will score well with their fans. For those not totally committed to Our Lady Peace, pick up a copy of Matthew Good Band's album instead.

Sandra Sperounes



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