Clare Bowditch’s fifth album is charismatically chirpy, which has caught the attention of Network Ten’s hit show Offspring, making her lovely single ‘You Make Me Happy’ the theme song for the show.
Her latest offering is the type of sweet music that would be ideal playing in the background of your favourite café.
The sassy introduction of ‘Lets Get Happy Together’ places you in the center of a live audience of a jazz club, immersing the listener in the good vibes of Bowditch’s cheeky vocals and occasional scat singing.
Not until ‘Cocky Lady’ do we get another glimpse of this upbeat jazz style, as her lyrics tend to become more emotional for the remainder of the album.
Songs like ‘One Little River’, showcasing her inspirational and uplifting attitude, are reflected throughout with cheerful piano accompanying the lyrics beautifully.
Bowditch delves deeper into the pursuit of happiness on songs such as ‘Amazing Life’, a stand-out track that has been in the making since 1997.
Her sound has a resemblance to other power women in the music industry such as Joni Mitchell, which can give the nostalgic feeling that you have heard the songs before. However, when listening to Bowditch you can feel the essence of the live music scene where her talent has grown from, and her ability to enrich her music with that sound is a remarkable gift that is missing from a lot of modern music today.
The Winter I Chose Happiness is a lovely record, true to the theme of its title, and successful in creating that emotion in its listeners.BB
