Zoon – Happy Thought School

Zoon is the project of Toronto-based Anishinaabe musician Daniel Monkman, whose well-received fusion of shoegaze and traditional First Nation music—or moccasin-gaze, if you prefer—earned them a Polaris Prize nomination for 2020 debut Bleached Wavves. I very much enjoyed that record, but 2023’s Bekka Ma’iingan was an even bolder statement. Monkman’s ability to bend guitar textures to their will made it one of the more invigorating shoegaze releases of the last decade.

Unfortunately, while Happy Thought School retains much of Bekka Ma’iingan’s charm, its broader scope and excursions into the psychedelic realm feel oddly detrimental. The transition from the sun-kissed instrumental “Beautiful II” to the droning Spiritualized-esque stomp of “One Too Many Nights” is particularly jarring.

I’m not usually one to criticise artists for taking risks and exploring new sonic terrain, but Monkman’s best work has always been defined by its cohesiveness. Happy Thought School’s unsettling stylistic jumps disrupt the flow and make the set feel more disjointed than the quality of the songwriting deserves.

But there is still plenty to cherish here.

“Atactic” channels Thames Valley OG shoegaze, with its gorgeous swells of hazy distortion a welcome reminder of Monkman’s skill set. Meanwhile, the early singles “OMNI II” and the “I Was Younger” feel more pop-oriented than anything they have released before. Monkman’s AutoTuned vocal on the latter track nagged at me for some time before I made the connection to Swedish indie legend Johan Angergård (Acid House Kings, Club 8, The Legends)—it’s an uncanny similarity.

It would be remiss of me to note the thematic focus on discrimination that runs throughout Happy Thought School. Monkman has talked openly about the isolation and racism they experienced as one of the few Indigenous students at a rural Manitoba school, and the album’s title track and low-key centrepiece is interspersed with snippets of spoken word that explore this directly:

“We arrived at Happy Thought and the principal comes out and he wouldn’t let us off the bus. We literally had to stay on the bus, and then he went back into the building to do whatever.”

While Happy Thought School isn’t quite the emphatic musical statement that Bekka Ma’iingan was, it still feels like an important transitional work for Monkman, as they simultaneously explore past adolescent traumas and future pop ambitions. Cohesion and sequencing issues aside, there’s more than enough quality here to make it worth your time.

Happy Thought School is out now via Paper Bag.