In 2022 it feels edgy to have a song emit genuine positivity. We’ve had two years of every press release reading, “This album is a meditation on anxiety and imposter syndrome in the wake of the ongoing COVID pandemic and the ever escalating climate collapse” which makes us forget that pop songs used to be like, “I love ta go dancin with my baby shee boo shee boo.” The scraps of positivity we do have are lyrics as a collection of individually wrapped slogans lab-designed to be re-enacted by 30-year-olds on Instagram Reels.
True to its title, this song is about feeling happy and good. There have been many days where I have held back declaring how much I love life because everyone else is talking about a 15-year-old in Missouri who bulldozed his high school with his classmates still in it or a new bill Republicans introduced requiring McDonald's workers to be chained to the frialator. Saying you are in a good mood feels like you are telling someone to go eat shit and die, and it shouldn't be like that. Nothing is everything. Sometimes I feel like we have empathied ourselves into only feeling misery.
let's imagine that patience and compassion grow into two legs
and you walk on them
'So Happy, So Good' isn't saccharine. The lyrics are rapped in a Hip-Hop1.0 style where the flow was kind of just talking but doing it cool. Very "Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly." It's about the joys of life and the moments where it feels like you are an empty vessel rapidly filling up with all the beauty around you. The song sounds like how Spring smells. The leaves haven't bloomed yet but you can tell they will soon by the scent of the dirt. The air is crisp, but not cold. You can go for a walk for the first time in months. Where I'm from this usually happens around April, but every once in a while you'll get a day like this in February and think about global warming. Not that global warming isn't serious, but fuck that. Enjoy the weather.
I'm strong like the mighty ox
Hitch me up and watch me trot
I'll tell ya there's love and faith to share
There's fresh clean socks and underwear
In the deepest part of the ocean's keep
There's strange and lingering mystery
Our bodies grow old and our muscles get weak
Our hearts and brains learn how to speak
