Track Listing

1. Be Be Your Love
2. Letter Read
3. Worn Me Down
4. Paper Doll
5. I’ll Find A Way
6. 1963
7. Under My Skin
8. Meet Me By The Water
9. Even So
10. I Want You
11. Reason Why
12. Moments With Oliver
13. Quiet

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3040 in Music
• Released on: 2004-06-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
Happenstance…the never can be…

Main Entry: hap·pen·stance; Etymology: happen + circumstance: A circumstance especially that is due to chance. - Merriam Webster Dictionary

I apologize for insisting on writing my own bio, but I just can not be satisfied with another’s account of my psyche when even I don’t understand it myself. Welcome to the world of this indecisive control freak hopeless romantic…

Happenstance, produced by John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews etc.), is a collection of songs inspired by my obsessions, often love related, but not always. It’s about the battle between chance circumstances and the belief that everything happens for a reason. The title and the back cover addition of ‘the never can be’ suggest that I’m not really endorsing chance, but, in fact insisting that there must be a reason for repeated broken hearts – perhaps a promise of a better situation, learning experience, the greater love etc. It’s a circular argument… and it’s merely a matter of ‘happenstance’ that the title is what it is anyway. Without the hopefulness of reason, how could anyone weather the highs and lows of relationships and this delightful junk called love.

Look to the second album for a more cynical approach in which it all goes to hell and nothing makes sense and chance is winning…

Amazon.com
There is a combustible quality about newcomer Rachael Yamagata that for a lot of listeners will call to mind Fiona Apple: A first spin of Happenstance can make you itch with the thrill of discovery, but it also leaves behind the impression that its singer is vaguely dangerous; which is exactly what makes these songs so absorbing. "Everybody's talking how I can't be your love," she pouts in a melodically engineered stutter on opener "Be Be Your Love," one of several tracks pairing her with a piano that seems to take the brunt of the punishment for her wrecked relationships. The rest of the disc unravels with similar heat: When she growls in her full-time rasp that "(You've) worn me down/like a road/I did everything you told" on the very infectious indie-rock leaning "Worn Me Down," you believe her. But the less stormy numbers work as well, with "1963" coming off as flower-power pop grounded by a voice that knows better and "I Want You" wending its way through a fat, heartsick wallow to emerge someplace burnt in honesty. A late minute-long instrumental feels more tasteful than pretentious, adding to a monster of a debut already fueling hopes that happenstance--the term, not the album--will play a miniscule part in Yamagata's eventual output. --Tammy La Gorce

From the Artist
After touring to promote the EP with Liz Phair, Gomez, Sondre Lerche, and Damien Rice, the focus became the full length. John Alagia fortunately came into my life at the very last moment to choose a producer. Something about our chemistry and common favorites like Rufus Wainwright’s ‘Poses’, Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’, Joni Mitchell, Elton John etc. as well as our love of travel and the ocean led us to begin work in August of 2003 at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas. We treated each song as its own entity and used the players best fitting the song – we had a plethora of amazing musicians including Kevin Salem (who also produced ‘Paper Doll’), Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors), John Conte (Alana Davis, Peter Wolf), Matt Walker (Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage), Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright), Stuart Myers and Brian Jones (Agents of Good Roots), Oliver Kraus (cellist – Beth Orton, Ed Harcourt, Tom Mcrae), James Johnston (Bumpus), Robert Carlilse (tenured French horn with the NYC ballet and my uncle), and even the Klezmatics.

John and I were literally and figuratively explorers through this record. He gave me the freedom to experiment with arrangements in my head while stepping in to guide me when my tangents became too far-reaching. Together we made a record that forged new territories for both of us. It is eclectic, lush, bare, honest and full….

I try my best to write of love and pain and explore how we humans treat each other, and what our souls are trying to get out at the same time. Performing is my meditation; writing my traveling companion. These songs are as truthful and in the moment as I could be at this point in my life. They are observational, touching, but with a sense of hopefulness that every piece, and each bit of pain had a reason. So that nothing is wasted. The never can be happenstance.

Customer Reviews

Under my skin
Ever had a song that had been stuck in your head for what seems like eternity? I have and that song that has been stuck in my head for eons is Rachael Yamagata's infectious "Worn Me Down". My local radio stations has been playing "Worn Me Down" quite a bit. It is one of the few songs that I actually enjoy listening to on the radio. I have not been able to get that song out of my head (which is a good thing). I finally broke down and bought "Happenstance" over the weekend. It took me a few listens and over time, the cd gradually grew on me. I can certainly hear the comparisons to Fiona Apple but as another reviewer wrote here, Rachael has a huskier voice. Plus her lyrics aren't as depressing as Fiona Apple's. She also reminded me of Beth Orton (a little bit) but minus the english accent. I guess I can hear a little Norah Jones in Rachael but nowhere as indecipherable as Norah is when it comes to singing. Next to "Worn Me Down", I thought the first two songs "Be Be Your Love" and "Letter Read" stood out for me on the album. "Happenstance" is one of those albums where everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in in terms of various influences in Rachael's music like country, jazz, and folk music. If "Happenstance' is anything to expect from Rachael Yamagata in the future, then I am looking forward to hearing more from her.

Beautiful
My first impression on Rachael Yamagata's Happenstance was overwhelmingly pleasing. This is quality music. What makes it high in quality? Creativity encapsulated in TALANTED artistic expression. Listening to the tracks the first time comes feeling of enchanting inspiration. It seems the "Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility" does not apply with this album. In other words the replay value, atleast for me, does not decrease in any way. Every track is unique in style. Rachael Yamagata has a wonderful, sweet, gentle, soothing hurricane of a voice. Breath-taking. Yet there is a fine balance between her voice and the instrumental progression. Neither being aggressive over the other. There is no "favorite" track here, and rightly so. Judging from this album, I can confidently say that Yamagata acquires substantial progress for the indie rock culture. 5-stars hands down. If all you do is listen and follow mainstream_trl music, you must die. Listen to a bit of life for a change.

Pros: creative, beautiful, anti-law of diminishing marginal utility

Cons: if listener has been first contaminated by what is, according to the unattentive ear, deceptively 'similar' in mainstream... it may require cleansing of the mind, soul, ear.

Smoky and moody, heavy with drama.
Rachael Yamagata's voice and vocal technique are positively apocalyptic -- a low, husky moan that automatically adds a load of anguish to all her songs, even an upbeat swinger like "I Want You". It's a seductive sound, however, kind of like the very dark, almost Goth doppelganger of Norah Jones. Even Fiona Apple sounds carefree by comparison.

The performances on this record are terrific all around, with a groove-heavy rhythm section and good, engaging arrangements in the jazz and rock veins. If anything, te weakness of this record is that it doesn't really vary its emotional approach. Everything is dark, heavy and menacing; it could use a little bit more lightness and sparseness -- as in the "hidden" 14th track (named as "Ode to..." in Rolling Stone), where Yamagata's airy singing and the lonely acoustic guitar provide some much-needed contrast to the dense melancholy that came before. However, the singular mood of Happenstance can also be a plus. Put it on when you're in a black, depressed kind of mood and it'll sound like it's expressing your emotions for you.