“Dracula Bells” follows and while the melancholy is ramped up, the melody doesn’t suffer and instead the disturbingly upbeat songs manages to turn sadness into something beautiful.
It’s this evolution and understanding of how to structure songs and in turn make more of an impact on the listener that impresses the most with the Have a Nice Life of today.
The post-punk sheen of their previous work is given space to breathe on this new record, and where long-form songs and ambient overlays made up much of their first album, Sea of Worry is a more streamlined affair with the title track opening the album on defiant drumbeats and Barrett’s slightly spoken, kind of sung delivery of the lyrics giving a sound that wouldn’t be out of place on some classic 80s records. The album was announced by the band in August 2019.
It is their first album to feature a full band. Where 2008s debut, Deathconsciousnesswas more of a whispered secret than a fully-fledged realisation of a sound, 2019s Sea of Worry was already being discussed months in advance, thanks in no small part to Have a Nice Life’s emotionally destructive performance of their debut at the 2019 edition of the renowned Roadburn Festival and the sense that after almost two decades together, the duo of Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga had finally arrived.ĭeathconsciousness was, and still is, an important record for anyone who has had the good fortune to discover it and the effects-driven walls of sound found within are still as hard-hitting today as they were in 2008, perhaps even more so as the world edges closer to catastrophe and our place in it seems ever more uncertain. Sea of Worry, though, sees the band moving away from the suicidal ideation of Deathconsciousness and towards the fact that the two people involved have grown, formed families and learned (a little) about how to cope with overwhelming feelings and times of depression, yet now have a multitude of other anxieties to cope with. Sea of Worry is the third studio album by American band Have a Nice Life, released on November 8, 2019, on the Flenser. However, the rules surrounding how music moves us is on a different scale to that of time - one piece of music will affect ten people differently. As people we are bound to the rules of time and how it moves regardless of whether we want it to or not. Please do not take this post as an invitation to plug your shitty band or your friend’s shitty band in the comments section.Have a Nice Life – Sea of Worry - Flenser, 2019 Thanks to everyone who said we should check it out. On first listen, it’s really, really good - an intense and blurry meditation on depression and alienation. Today, Have A Nice Life have come out with Sea Of Worry, their third album. Also, Lil Peep sampled their song “A Quick One Before The Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut” on his track “Shiver.” But from what I am now reading on the internet, that LP has built up a fervent cult following over the past five years. Have A Nice Life have been around since 2000, but they don’t record often their last album was 2014’s The Unnatural World. It’s got bits and pieces of post-punk, drone, and shoegaze, and the songs don’t sound anything like the other songs, though they all fit together beautifully. Have A Nice Life are a duo from Connecticut who make a heavy, meditative, hard-to-characterize kind of music. And now, on the very same day, the same thing is going on with the new Have A Nice Life album. By using our website and our services, you agree to our use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy.
We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. That thing kicks ass! We had no idea! But people in the comments section were riding for it, so we listened to it and figured out that yes, you’re right, it’s great. Sea of Worry, a song by Have A Nice Life on Spotify. For instance: Greet Death’s album New Hell. The small staff here at Stereogum listens to a whole lot of music, but sometimes we miss stuff.