Irresistibly upbeat, sublime and cynical, The Pursuit Of Happiness’s debut, cast a wry eye across relationships in the late 80s as Woody Allen had some 10 years previously. Singer and songwriter Moe Berg even had the considered, bespectacled, intuitive look down, just like Woody – if Woody had worn a wig. Berg wrote all the songs and sang them as if his girlfriend had just run off with the florist who’d delivered the flowers Moe had sent her.
He had a sense of humour about it, though; you could just imagine him running the pair down in his Subaru and chuckling as he did so. The Toronto band managed to combine pop music with pathos and razor-sharp lyrics, and it’s no surprise that Berg has since published a book of short stories. The songs remain lustrous and polished, buoyed up by rattling storylines and tortured, emphatic digs.
Subjects include infidelity, infatuation, cults, crime and a love song that never mentions that word once. The songs’ sharp edges, musically and emotionally, are tempered to perfection by ’s crisp production. “We used Todd because he was my hero and I thought he was one of the best producers in the world at the time,” Moe Berg told in 2003.
“He helped us define our sound and kind of figured out what was good about the band and pointed us in that direction. There was a bland, sissy element to some of our material, material which he banished. I’m forever grateful.
” ’ gave The Pursuit Of Happiness a minor hit single in the dryly o.
