For those of you not in the know, “Really Really Happy is the album that kicks off the second phase of The Muffs career,” so begins Roy McDonald’s liner notes for the expanded reissue of the band’s fifth album.

After eight years and four albums, The Muffs had written, recorded, and toured non-stop. After a break, the group was ready to do it all again, and was approached by friends (and sisters in law) Charlotte Caffey (Go-Go’s) and Anna Waronker (that dog), who had just started their own label – Five Foot Two Records.

McDonald, bassist Ronnie Barnett, and singer/guitarist/songwriter Kim Shattuck had a new home, and were ready to do it all again.

Really Really Happy arrived in 2004 to rave reviews. Now, nearly two decades later, it returns (via Omnivore Recordings) as an expanded double-CD / Digital release with 22 bonus tracks, including 16 of Kim Shattuck’s original demos for the album. The original 17 tracks are also available on LP.

The demo recordings on Disc 2 of the CD are available separately as New Improved Kim Shattuck Demos. In addition to McDonald’s liner notes, the packaging also features pieces from Barnett, Caffey, Waronker, and Shattuck’s husband Kevin Sutherland, plus photos and a new layout.

Barnett’s notes begin, “Dear Kim, This is the first project we’ve put together since you went away and I can’t say it’s been easy. The task of what, if any, extra stuff to include with this reissue was daunting but you, still ever present and in your own indomitable way, somehow ended up making it easy.”

Are we glad they did it? We’re really, really happy they did.

CD 1:
1. Freak Out
2. A Little Luxury
3. Really Really Happy
4. Something Inside
5. Everybody Loves You
6. Don’t Pick On Me
7. And I Go Pow
8. My Lucky Day
9. Fancy Girl
10. How I Pass The Time
11. Slow
12. I’m Here I’m Not
13. The Whole World
14. My Awful Dream
15. By My Side
16. Oh Poor You
17. The Story Of Me
18. My Whore [Bonus Track]
19. Uh Oh [Bonus Track]
20. Under The Covers In Jammies [Bonus Track]
21. My Imagination [Bonus Track]
22. Just The Beginning [Bonus Track]
23. I Hate Gym [Bonus Track]

When the Muffs finished their 1999 tour obligations, they were at a low point. No manager, no label, seemingly not many career prospects left. It would have been easy to give up the game after eight solid years and four sterling albums of punk-meets-power pop goodness.

They weren’t quite ready to pack it in, though, and kept playing the occasional show, even while the band’s leader, Kim Shattuck, formed a new group with cub’s Lisa Marr called the Beards. At the same time, she kept cranking out songs for the Muffs, and after the band hooked up with Five Foot Two, the label run by Anna Waronker and Charlotte Caffey, they got a chance to record them.

To make Really Really Happy, the group eschewed the studio experience - which hadn’t always been pleasant in the past - and tracked everything except the drums in Shattuck’s kitchen. The new recording setup didn’t change much; the band still delivered crunchy and raw slices of punk powered by Shattuck’s gnarly guitar and sugar-snarled vocals.

There is a layer of grunge gloss missing from the mix, and that’s just fine. The band were able to make it through that era with their facilities intact, and some might even say they sound more immediate and pop-friendly without the fancy studio treatment.

Shattuck certainly sounds at the top of her game vocally, spitting out venom on tough rockers like Freak Out or The Whole World. She also proves up to some of the stylistic gambles the Muffs take. The bouncy put-down Don’t Pick On Me is a rollicking blast, Something Inside is a painfully honest ballad that is well served by the stripped-down production, My Awful Dream proves that the band are just as powerful minus electricity, and the doo wop-meets-sea shanty Fancy Girl is a showcase for Shattuck’s more intimate vocal style.

Add in a few glimmering pop songs (Everybody Loves You, How I Pass the Time) that float by on a cloud, and it makes for a set that explores more sides of the band than any album that came before. It may lack some of the thumping power of earlier work, but it makes up for it with variety and some truly great songs.

Ergo, Really Really Happy was the start of the second half of the band’s career, and it’s a really, really strong record.

CD 2: New Improved Kim Shattuck Demos
1. Really Really Happy (Demo)
2. Freak Out (Demo)
3. Everybody Loves You (Demo)
4. Something Inside (Demo)
5. And I Go Pow (Demo)
6. Don’t Pick On Me (Demo)
7. The Story Of Me (Demo)
8. A Little Luxury (Demo)
9. By My Side (Demo)
10. Fancy Girl (Demo)
11. How I Pass The Time (Demo)
12. I’m Here I’m Not (Demo)
13. Even Now (Demo)
14. Slow (Demo)
15. My Lucky Day (Demo)
16. Oh Poor You (Demo)

Official Purchase Link

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