A line which tells you a lot about the music of the four Aarhus lads, a group which manages to attract fans across the generations as few others do. It is at one and the same time timeless and typical of the period when Steffen Brandt describes life and society with his own, very personal imprint. And in a language that all can understand:
"I know that I'm probably losing out on something/ what if I don't get to experience everything that's going", says the newly-hatched father pushing his pram in the song "Dark Jutland" ("Det Moerke Jylland"). Are the lives of other people always more exciting than one's own? Are we so obsessed with looking for happiness that it can be right in front of us without our noticing it?
Unique mix
This is the theme in Steffen Brandt's texts for Almost Happy, which just like that of TV-2's other records catches Danish everyday life right between the eyes. This down-to-earth, pertinent and to the point songwriting is echoed today in the work of many young Danish textsmiths from Tue West to Juncker. But just where do you find the same blend of sensitivity, disarming self-irony and debate-stimulating criticism of society? Steffen Brandt gives the Danes something to mull over, even if it is not always pleasant. In return they get the chance to sing along to the one catchy tune after the other!
Soulless 1980s
With Almost Happy, TV-2 said finally goodbye to what many described as the soulless 1980s. But it also meant that the Aarhus scene, which had long dominated Danish pop and rock, met competition from a burgeoning music scene, which spread out in all directions away from the midfield of pop and rock in the 1990s. Danish musicians now drew fresh inspiration from the genesis of "grunge", the creativity on the electronic scene, "dance", "Britpop" and the entry into Europe of commercial rap.
But despite it all TV-2 are still very much TV-2 and just as popular as ever. Perhaps this is because they are able with a simple note, a glint in the eye and the use of short, precise texts such as in "This Hell of a Life" ("Det Satans Liv") or "Almost Happy", to describe life so precisely?
Peter Elsnab is a music journalist and Jesper Nykjaer Knudsen a culture journalist.
Cover of Almost Happy
Coverdesign: Jo Dam Kjærgaard.