Bertolf - Happy In Hindsight -Indie Only- (LP)

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EAN code : 8714374226394
Carrier : LP
Release date : 28-05-2021

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Colored Vinyl, Indie Only

With an intuitive feeling for the glory days of pop at his fingertips, Bertolf's Zilveren Harp (2010) has been forged over the years into a golden pen. Happy In Hindsight listens like an acutely encouraging album full of evergreens. The Top 2000 in twelve modern classics. With Sunday Child as his finest Abbey Road moment.

Tracklist:

• 1. Back To the Garden
• 2. Welcome Time Travelers
• 3. Happy In Hindsight
• 4. What Have I Dragged You Into?
• 5. Everywhere I Go (There I Am)
• 6. Don't Look Up, Don't Look Down
• 7. Start Somewhere
• 8. Misery Magnet
• 9. You're Not Gonna Get It Everyday
• 10. Waiting In the Wings
• 11. We Don't Get Along
• 12. Sunday Child

From Bertolf's site:

For his sixth album 'Happy In Hindsight' Bertolf did most of the work himself in his famous garden shed.
Back To The Garden is the title of the first song on Happy In Hindsight, Bertolf's new album. In essence, that is what he did for this sixth album. He retreated to his now famous garden house in Zwolle. There he wrote most of the songs and recorded them himself. The drums were added at co-producer Frans Hagenaars' in Amsterdam. The conclusion is that the corona-proof stamp can be put on it. It is also striking that it is less Americana and roots than its predecessor Big Shadows of Small Things from 2018 and more pop, more upbeat, more choruses, less melancholy and a bit more cheerfulness. That is impressive in these times.
That observation of less Americana and roots does not apply to the first single Don't Look Up, Don't Look Down. There you still hear traditional instruments such as banjo and mandolin. For the rest, you don't hear them anywhere. 'That is also because those instruments were still with the guitar roadie when Her Majesty's Are You Ready For The Country? tour was canceled by the first lockdown,' Bertolf states. The title of the song harks back to statements by his heroes Paul McCartney and Johan Cruijff to never look up to others, but also not to look down on them. 'Underestimate no one is the underlying message,' he adds.
You can also hear some roots in You're Not Gonna Get It Everyday. Bertolf confirms this: 'That was inspired by my bluegrass guitar hero Tony Rice. I used to practice his licks endlessly, especially those on his solo album Church Street Blues.' He is already dreaming of a next complete bluegrass album.
Waiting In The Wings, which refers to the time after the corona crisis when playing is allowed again, is in the alt.country corner of Jayhawks. He already played that song in a Sunday Sounds livestream of his label Excelsior in the adjacent Tolhuistuin in May 2020. 'But you don't have to take it too literally. At the same time, it's about a guy who calmly waits for a girl who is already in a relationship to become available again.'
Furthermore, the record is very pop. Not only do you hear Beatles influences, but also Beach Boys. The beautifully kept a capella song We Don't Get Along is as Brian Wilson as it gets. 'I had read an interview with him in which he called The Four Freshmen a vocal group. They are very jazzy and have very independent voices,' he explains. 'I also started listening to Take 6, a black vocal sextet. I wanted to find out how they did it, such virtuoso six-part a capella. I applied that to a very old song of mine from 2006 or 2007, which I found when I was leafing back through my song folder.' He built it up layer by layer.
Happy In Hindsight is a collection of pop songs with catchy choruses, less heavy-handed than its predecessor Big Shadows of Small Things and the accompanying theatre tour Soelaas. 'Why would I want to tell all that about my own troubles?' he now asks himself out loud. 'Just give people a chair to sit on, said John Lennon.' Isn't the title track another 'last gasp' of the always somewhat melancholic Bertolf?
'It's definitely about what the previous record was about, that I have trouble enjoying the moment. I always look far ahead into the future or into the past. I'm a huge nostalgic. I can romanticize last month, even yesterday. I see that what I was worried about was nothing in retrospect. I could have been carefree. That's how I'm happy in the past and in the future but not in the now. That's what Buddhism was invented for.' Practice makes perfect, Bertolf too. It's also a really nice pop song to whistle along to.
Don't think that a song like Misery Magnet is about him. 'What I do in my songs, other people do on Twitter. They claim to attract fate or they react a bit too eagerly to other people's misery.' Every now and then the lessons of corona and the climate crisis raise their heads. What Have I Dragged You Into? with his own children happily playing in the garden in the intro raises the question of what we as humanity have saddled the world with. Bertolf asks the question: 'What is in store for our children?' It never gets too heavy.
Slottrack Sunday Child is a novelty in Bertolf's repertoire. You can still make the most ambitious composition of your entire career, thrown back on yourself. The more than six-minute song consists of various song fragments strung together. The nod to Abbey Road is clear with this real pop suite.
Of course, that touch of melancholy always remains in Bertolf's music. That is precisely what makes it so unique, in addition to the influences from the rich pop history. In addition to being a nostalgic, he is also a melancholic. But aren't those very pleasant qualities for singer-songwriters? In a time when one person turns inward and another takes on the challenge, he has nevertheless made a new record. On his own, in his garden shed.
There he played all the instruments himself, except for the drums. 'Every disadvantage has its advantage,' as one of his heroes used to say. The drums were recorded in the studio at Frans Hagenaars with Bauke Bakker, drummer of Her Majesty. Waiting In The Wings will soon be over. Then Bertolf will be allowed to play outside again. A nice prospect for all of us to be able to fully enjoy this new album here in the now.