(Indie Pop/Chamber Pop/Pop Rock) The Aluminum Group - Happyness - 2002, MP3 (tracks), 320 kbps

The Aluminum Group comes from that whole Chicago post-rock scene and, wouldn't you know it, there are all sorts of Tortoise-types (including, in fact, several actual members of Tortoise), electronic squiggles, not exactly booty-shaking but certainly moderately sexy basslines and hushed male vocals. If one is uncharitable, or unwilling to give Happyness more than a cursory listen, one might leave it at that and abandon the record for something that's not quite so lulling. It's your loss.
Granted, Happyness can often be so mellow that you'll find yourself blindly groping for something, anything that might be caffeinated; this isn't an album you'll want to listen to while driving (and yes, I found this out the hard way.). What it lacks in energy, though, it makes up for in loads of charm and wit. The Navin brothers' lyrics are never so clever as to be distracting, which is quite a feat at times -- they can sing about Jellystone Park in "Kid" and have it be a gently pointed metaphor rather than a jarring gimmick. A lot of that probably has to do with their voices, which are just so warm and sympathetic-sounding, even when they're singing about embittering love affairs and drug abuse, that the songs seem that much more endearing. And when the Spinanes' Rebecca Gates joins them, as in the choruses of "Pop", even a diatribe about perpetually-baked friends sounds hug-yourself-and-bounce-in-your-seat gorgeous.
Thus, on the surface, you have here a big, soft, fuzzy blanket of a record -- and to its credit, it only gets more inviting as you dig through the layers of bubbly electronics, strings and cornet (provided by an actual third of the Chicago Underground Trio, or whatever fraction of however many there are in the band now) to the sometimes cranky, sometimes wistful, always large-hearted sentiments at the album's center. It's comforting, for sure, and you could very well fall asleep listening, or use it as background music, but you'd be missing a lot.