Can't Believe You're Happy Here

Sincerity is embarrassing. On Can’t Believe You’re Happy Here, a new 6-song EP out on Hardly Art Records, Whitmer Thomas plumbs the hilarity, and stupidity, of everyday life, sketching small scenes of loving, longing, and loserdom with a sense of unstuffy earnestness. Coming off the heels of his 2020 HBO special The Golden One (a wildly funny examination of family trauma, artistic failure, and pop-punk boys) and the accompanying LP Songs From The Golden One, Thomas found himself at a crossroads: was his love for music secondary to his comedy, or could it stand on its own? With Can’t Believe You’re Happy Here, Thomas proves the latter to be the right answer. Written largely on an acoustic guitar, often in hotel bedrooms during filming breaks, these six songs capture a sense of charmed innocence. Gone are the heavy synth lines, Ian Curtis-cosplay vocals, and high theatrics of Thomas’s last LP. In their place, Thomas constructs paired down pop tunes, laying out catchy and breathable melod