Mark Mallman to Release First Album in 5 Years 'Happiness'

Minnesota musician and memoirist Mark Mallman is releasing Happiness, his first album in 5 years on April 9. A pre-order for Happinesss on limited-edition vinyl is now available for pre-order HERE. Today, Mallman shares the video for the song "Fake Gold Silver Chains."

Mallman says of the song and video:

"The music is designed to keep the body moving, to bypass overthinking, and let the soul speak by dancing. Lyrically, it's about capitalist inclusivity. Everybody deserves to dress up and feel themselves. The absurdity of it all is paying ten thousand dollars for a piece of jewelry that looks identical to one that costs $1.99."

Happiness is a companion to Mallman's uplifting memoir, The Happiness Playlist: The True Story of Healing My Heart With Feel-Good Music. The book follows Mallman's listening to nothing but a playlist of 50 feel-good songs for an entire Minnesota winter. His goal was to process the crushing grief and anxiety following the suicide of his mother. This is the true story of a man beset by grief, healed by music, and learning to laugh through it all. The book, published in 2019, includes a foreword by Chuck Klosterman. While the subject is sad and dark, the book itself is told with humor and joy.

The album Happiness, is a collection of material he wrote while writing and touring the book as well as one year after. Like the book, it explores the depth of emotions if the human experience, staring happy at track one to loss and devastation by track eleven. It has the great Twin Cities pedigree with the area's legends Prince, The Hold Steady, Lizzo, and Hüsker Dü swimming in its DNA. Mark worked with some great talent to help him with having the album mixed by John Fields (Jonas Brothers), Aaron Cupping (Tropical f Storm), Adrian Olsen (Foxygen) among others. The psychedelic ballad "We Are We" features a guest guitar by Deerhoof member Ed Rodriguez. Happiness comes out via Eagle's Golden Tooth.

Photo Credit: Alexandria Harland