Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga live double lives. To a rabid subset of the notorious 4chan forum /mu/, they are the mysterious co-founders of Have a Nice Life, whose debut record, 2008’s foreboding, gauzy Deathconsciousness, is regarded as beyond reproach; its accompanying 70-page manifesto has since begot reams of stoned hermeneutics. But man cannot survive on 4chan fame alone; Barrett and Macuga have day jobs, and day lives, with families and children who might be less enamored by the creation myths of Christian cults. Their follow up, 2014’s The Unnatural World, raised uneasy questions about settling into the tedium of adulthood. Five years later, Sea of Worry presents disquieting answers.
Have a Nice Life’s early work had a tendency to shape-shift, presenting as garage rock on one track only to unravel into ambient noise on the next. On Sea of Worry, these shifts are more abrupt; the pace of the record suffers as a result. The momentum of the triumphant, shout-along choruses on “Sea of Worry” is flatlined by “Dracula Bells,” a track rendered exhaustingly slow by awkward rhythmic shifts, multiple melodic tangents, and a painful dash of free jazz.
It’s nearly grating enough to make a new listener pull the plug altogether, which would be a shame—Sea of Worry finds the band honing in on the metallic sheen of goth rock, a subgenre consistently in the mix on previous records but never given its due. With a propulsive bassline that gives way to shimmering guitars, “Science Beat” sounds like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” as helmed by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, Barrett’s atonal sing-speaking cutting through the blinding brightness. “Lords of Tresserhorn” plays with the same elements—twinkling synths, thrumming bass, clipped vocals—but simmers them slowly, not so much building to a chorus as painting layers of scenery.
But these ambitious experiments are paired with concessions to an active fanbase that is terrified of change. Two of the album’s seven tracks are re-recordings of demos already familiar to diehards, padding a relatively short record with old material. “Trespassers W,” originally a brooding post-punk love song with muffled vocals and a bassline ripped from “Transmission,” justifies its inclusion with a full-band remake. The new version represents what online fans feared for the band, with crunchy, overdriven guitar and full-throated yelps that are more indebted to Superchunk than Bauhaus. But the song benefits from the crisper recording, which highlights impressive chord changes and structural twists that were previously buried. “Destinos,” with a lengthy sample of a sermon about the evils of Satan and Hell, is more similar to its original version; as a closer, it makes a disappointingly safe choice for a dramatic exit.
As Have a Nice Life learn to embrace professional studio recordings and bigger audiences, perhaps the band’s most defining quality will prove to be its lyrics, a potent expression of what one might call dad rage. Sea of Worry addresses the anxieties of adulthood with vengeful indignation. “I opted out by never really opting in,” they sing on the title track, finding simultaneous freedom and sadness in the idea. But the sharpest commentary on the nihilism of total independence comes from “Lords of Tresserhorn”: “I can stay up late whenever I want,” Barrett sings, “but other than that, it’s nothing like I thought. I guess I thought I’d know what I’m doing by now, but I know nothing.” Where Matt Berninger might be ruefully fondling his argyle sweaters, Have a Nice Life eyes revolution: “I am mortgaged to an irrational thought: that we are always on top, and nothing will ever go wrong.” After two records about death, Macuga and Barrett have landed on something truly terrifying: finding oneself, inexplicably, still alive.
Buy: Rough Trade
