Home Read Albums Of The Week: The Wind Ups | Happy Like This

Albums Of The Week: The Wind Ups | Happy Like This

If I could make records as cool as the ones Chico indie-rocker Jake Sprecher makes at home, I'd leave the house even less than I do now (which is saying something).

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Are you happy like this?” Purveyors of raw power pop and punk, The Wind Ups may or may not be curious to know. Since the release of their 2021 debut Try Not To Think, the Northern California bedroom-project-turned-touring outfit have gained the reputation of a lights-out live band, emulating the same breakneck pace of the record. And you are damn sure to find that same frenetic combustion on their second LP Happy Like This.

Produced in identical fashion to the first album, Happy Like This finds frontman Jake Sprecher once again in his comfort zone — writing, performing, recording and mixing the entire record himself from the backyard confines of his home in the college town of Chico. Still slamming ¼” tape into the red, you’ll hear many a blistering hook in the form of tracks like Oh I Know and Tell Me Again (How Pretty I Am) and odd-measure pushers like Nothing But Time and Starting To Lose Ya.”