Mad Happy

A hint for the slang-impaired: Mad is the new bad, another well-established word seeping back into this fine language with renewed meaning. Although the adjective can still mean angry, as in “This bastardization of English makes me mad,” mad can also replace quantity descriptors such as super to dramatic effect, as in “You best shut up, professor, or I’ll bust this foot up your ass with mad fury.” Thus, it can safely be inferred that Mad Happy refers not to a puzzling bipolar conundrum but instead means that songwriter Mike Ill’s band is profoundly giddy. Feel Good Music … for a Broke Middle Class features pop-rock sugar bombs both crunchy and head-bobbingly melodic. Along the way, Ill drops one of last year’s most unjustly overlooked lyrics, The sky’s comin’ down like a veil of pork-fuckin’-beans, the opening sentiment of “Born to Dive.” Incidentally, pork-fuckin’-beans should be regarded as mad delicious. See? It’s easy.