Just This Shy of Happy, the seventh full release from Flipping the Pig, and the first in over three years, is another grab bag full of catchy pop/rock oddities. Compared by listeners to artists such as David Bowie, Ween, Pink Floyd, Harry Nilsson, The Pixies, The Monkees, and Stephin Merritt, it just depends on which of the songs they're listening to. This outing begins with the erratic glam pop Stop Until I Stop (shades of immobilizing paranoia as set to a Latin beat with some distorted guitar thrown in for good measure) and the bouncy "back from near death" acoustic singalong of Run With Everything. From there, we're taken through the electronic day job frustration, albeit in a humorous way, of Here's A Brain Teaser, the reflective loss during the piano and vocal choir melodies of Entrances and Exits, the lullaby waltz of Someday Again, the pulsating acoustic guitar picking escapism of City Behind, as well as the 7+ minute building dissonance of Antarctica. Bonus tracks, thrown in for good measure, include the humorous You Should Always Feel Guilty, which every child should learn and every adult should carry with them throughout this life of ours.

The Life You Thought You'd Have

My Heroic Cadences

You Get The Idea

Pout