All in Your Head marked a departure from Happy Tooth & Dug’s previous album W.H.Y.G.O.D.W.H.Y from 2015. Their latest album All in Your Head centers around Effingham’s guitar riffs with each member filling in the blanks as the riffs evolved to songs. Recording sessions were held in a single room live-tracked as opposed to the meticulous recording and arrangements of the group’s debut.
The band’s indie-rock roots really show here on this EP with the raw gritty rock sound. The raw gritty rock sound is what stands out the most. Happy Tooth & Dug seemed to have mixed the sounds of blues and rock thus creating a blues rock fusion.
The lyrical themes on this album are often dark. The whole EP taps into darker more aggressive styles than the band has previously explored. Happy Tooth & Dug is known for addressing hard-to-discuss topics which are personally enough to be relatable. However there is a hint of optimism as the whole EP is filled with great moments. All in Your Head is an EP that has 5 songs with a duration of 18 minutes in length. Much shorter than your usual album. The only downside is that the instrumentation overlaps their vocals making lyrics hard to decipher. Vocals are quite monotonous also.
La Fin is the opening track for their EP. What is interesting about La Fin is how the song goes back and forth with using different time signatures. The song goes back and forth between using 5|4 and 6|8 time signatures. Some may think 6|8 is such a strange time signature. There are many song which use the 5|4 time signature in their songs.
La Fin discusses the dark side of not having money to spend on things such as bills or art. Read these lyrics:
“I work a job to make money to spend it on art/To make art about hating my job and about no money for bills or art/Taxing profits” People lose faith when it comes to working and not having any money for art. An example how people stay in a cycle of poverty.
Always A Threat has a feel of soft rock. Honestly the song has a mixture of soft rock, Hawaiian surf rock, and 50s rock. This is point in the EP where the mood and lyrical content start to change. You can tell by how the guitar notes are played that the mood is downtempo and has a negative vibe. Having friends that don’t believe in the future or their choices is quite dark and questionable. Not everyone feels the same feelings.
Good For You sounds very much similar to a blues rock song. The monotonous vocals, vibe, and mood give that away. For a song titled Good For You, the song surely has a dark vibe which is much different from the average Happy Tooth & Dug song. The average Happy Tooth & Dug song are about great moments with a hint of optimism. The only downside is the distortion from the instruments playing makes listening to the lyrics difficult.
Never has that gritty rock edge and sound. Similar to what you would hear a rock band playing at a nightclub. Hard rock meets pop rock on Never.
Never takes place during night time. It’s another sleepless night. It’s another one of those nights where you stay awake and can’t sleep at all. People stay awake at night to escape from their own reality and themselves. You never gave up but gave in nonetheless. Shortcomings are forthcomings. However there is a glimpse of hope and optimism in the lyrics. For example, such as these lyrics: “I know I’m not alone/Tell myself everything is fine a hundred times till I’m fine”
You have made it this far to get down with the get down. So get over yourself.
I rate this EP 3/5***.
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