Joy: the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.

In other words: really fucking happy. Which is the only way to describe the mood that carries Adebisi Shank‘s second record, This Is The Second Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank. Hell, the name of the band and/or the album title alone tell you that much. How can you have a band with such a name without some level of felicity?

The real miracle here is that the level of bliss is maintained for the entire duration of the album. There simply isn’t a single sad note or motif to be found here. The pitfall of gleeful songs is that the happiness within can actually become strangulating. U2′s ‘Beautiful Day,’ for example comes rather close, as does Andrew W.K.’s ‘Party Hard’ (actually, exchange that song for any off of I Get Wet to make the same point). The fact that they don’t is the carefully constructed songwriting of both artists. The Edge’s trademark guitar chime during the bridge saves the song from Bono’s Christ-like posturing, while Andrew uses over-the-top ridiculousness to balance out the glee-fest.

But with Adebisi Shank, you’ve got an entire record of pure exuberance. That it doesn’t get suffocating by the third track is the key to the album. You see, the band’s ability to weave different textures of contentment into music is what keeps the listener interested. Opener ‘International Dreambeat,’ for example, starts out playfully with a bouncy keyboard line and morphs into balls-out sweet-sixteen jubilation, while ‘Bones’ is relaxed contentment.

Then there’s the tropical-sounding ‘(-_-)’ which sums up the album in two minutes both by having the most absurd song title of the year (perhaps the decade) and by being the most groove-laden cut of the collection. The song – and, honestly, the album – just wants you do be happy. Those that argue this record has no real point because of its superfluous pleasure are missing the the reason for the its existence. Yes, Second Album is all joy and merriment – and it’s precisely this reason the album was made. It’s meant to be put on in order to enjoy the day or to help you get over a bad one. For shit’s sake, one of the song titles is an emoticon for boobs. All Adebisi Shank ask is that you have a good time with them for forty minutes. Can you really refuse that?