Happy Man

“Happy Man” is the fifth track from London based neo-soul group Jungle, and their second studio album “For Ever”. The album was released in August 2018 through XL Recordings, and charted highly in album charts in loactions such as Australia (#28), the UK (#10), and even the US Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums, where it charted at #6.

“Happy Man” was written by Jungle members Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson, as well as the duo producing the track with Inflo. Jungle currently has seven members: Josh Lloyd-Watson, Tom McFarland, Fraser MacColl, George Day, Dominic Whalley, Rudi Salmon and Andro. The band was founded in London, where McFarland and Lloyd-Watson created Jungle at the beginning of 2013, having grown up next door to one another in Shepherds Bush, in west London. In an interview with Songs for Whoever, where “Happy Man” was ranked at #77 on the “100 Greatest Songs of 2018” on the site, Tom MacFarland spoke about the meaning behind the track: ““What’s great about ‘Happy Man’ is that inherent darkness, there’s always a big question mark. It might seem there’s something good on the surface, but I like the fact that we explore the undercurrent. How that’s actually emotionally affecting people.
We wrote it quite early in the [album] process and it took us quite a while to find some music that we loved for it, but that’s an exciting process for us because a lot of the time you have a beat and try melodies over it as you’re trying to make it work. Sometimes you don’t get the right thing. As you’re working on the music that also evolves and develops, then eventually it inspires you to get the melody and the lyrics. ‘Happy Man‘ was one of those evolutionary processes that felt like a very beautiful and natural weird journey through this idea. The emotional content for us lies in that our generation feels there’s a lot of pressure on them to live a certain way, to fit into this system. This modern capitalistic, democratic system that is seen as what perceives to be the best way for people to live their lives. It’s about challenging that and challenging the notion of what is a fulfilling and happy existence for everybody. Everybody’s different, one system doesn’t fit every person.”

The music video for “Happy Man” was released on YouTube on the 8th May 2018, and was directed by JFC Worldwide. It features Jungle sitting in a room, smoking and playing along to the song. They are also shown fixing a car, watching tv and dancing in this same room. The video has over 7.8 million views as of January 2020.

Release Date: 8th May 2018

Songwriter/s: Thomas McFarland & Josh Lloyd-Watson

Producer/s: Josh Lloyd-Watson, Thomas McFarland & Inflo

Label: XL

Music Video Release Date: 8th May 2018

Music Video Director: JFC Worldwide

Chart Rankings: “Happy Man” charted highly on the French charts, via iTunes. It peaked at #73 within one week of its release. The song has over 30.5 million Spotify plays.

The lyrics to “Happy Man” can be viewed here: LINK