K’s Choice
Almost Happy
Sony / Red
What exactly distinguishes K’s Choice from any other mediocre alterna-pop outfit? Well, for one, like the band Hooverphonic, they’re Belgian. That incidental detail aside, Almost Happy, their fourth album, is largely an exercise in repetition and poor imitation.
Every song here is utterly forgettable. Take all the life and colour out of The Indigo Girls’ music, throw in some rhyming or alliterative lyrics that make absolutely no sense (e.g., “I’m too young to know I’m young” or “You made me feel strong and never, ever wrong”), address trite memories and relationships as if they were serious, and you’ve got something similar to Almost Happy.
Still, all this might be vaguely tolerable as three-minute radio ditties. But when they move into the epic – that is, the six-minute plus “Shadowman” – it confirms that the members of K’s Choice have no concept whatever of their own limitations. The hidden track titled “We’re Already There” is a surprise the way a bee in your drinking straw is a surprise.
And summarily, while we’re still working with metaphors, bringing K’s Choice to American records stores is the equivalent of exporting 1980s made-for-TV movies and Fresh Prince reruns to European viewers. The Belgians ought to rein this band in before it gives the nation’s music scene a bad name.
Sony Music: http://www.sony.com • K’s Choice: http://www.kschoice.com
