50 Cent Haircut

With their latest release, a concise 10-track collection titled with, one hopes, a glimmer of irony, Be Happy, perennial L.A. combo 50 Cent Haircut distance themselves yet further from the Alt Country label that they’ve sported somewhat uncomfortably since they ventured onto the scene some eleven years and four albums ago.

As labels go, Americana is even vaguer than Alt Country but at least it suggests a broader canvass, which is useful in this case. It also evokes plenty of evocative stuff like crackly valve radios, roadhouse crooners, bad whisky and worse women, all of which resonate fulsomely throughout Be Happy, an album riven with enough heartache, yearning and pain to satisfy the most die-hard C&W fans. It also retains the band’s notorious balance of crunch and twang - thunderous drums, rock solid bass and guitars that jangle and shred in harmonious accord. But it’s obvious that frontman and songwriter Jay Souza looks farther afield for his inspiration than Nashville - or, indeed, the United States. It’s not uncommon to read comments like “Johnny Cash meets The Beatles” in 50 Cent Haircut reviews, and they do have some currency. There is, in the sly lyrics and brisk song structures, echoes of classic Britpop that, to these ears at least, recalls The Kinks and The Who more readily than The Beatles. That said, Be Happy never strays far from its roots, which are firmly planted in the American heartland.

Be Happy is 50 Cent Haircut’s most ambitious and satisfying album by far, a culmination of fully matured songwriting, superb musicianship and a confident and unique blend of styles. And the only label you need for that is damn fine rock and roll.

Simon Braund

of Empire Magazine (UK)

May 2009