Mr MooQ’s “Double Happiness” is a simple song about the joys of romance. Over a gently bopping beat, colored with various keyboard elements, it’s like a perfect date soundtrack.
“You can let your hair down/I will put the top up,” Mr MooQ advises. It’s all about relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. This is uncomplicated relationship talk. This date might entail a pleasurable drive. It may include a movie. It could even involve champagne toast with dinner.
The title seems to be a joyous descriptor for romance. It probably wasn’t inspired by the Chinese calligraphy of the same name, or the multiple Chinese restaurants that go under the Double Happiness moniker. Perhaps, then, Mr MooQ means to suggest that two happy people involved in a successful relationship adds up to double happiness. Call it positive love math, if you will.
Stylistically, “Double Happiness” is closer to ‘yacht rock,’ than anything edgy and contemporary. In fact, the song that came to mind while listening to “Double Happiness” the first time was “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes. Even though this song opens with some kooky keyboard lines, it eventually settles into a relatively standard groove. The vocal is laid back, much like the way Holmes sang his big hit.
The lead vocal is changed up a bit in places, though. In some spots, the vocal takes on a computerized sound. But even with these modernized touches, the song still sounds like a bit of a throwback to an earlier era. This was a simpler time, back when love just seemed a lot less complicated. This is back in the seventies, just after the world had begun to experiment with free love. This is not to suggest that “Double Happiness” is about the exchange of free love; it’s just to say that Mr MooQ’s song doesn’t over analyze romance. Instead, love is to be enjoyed for what it is, without searching for some sort of deeper meaning.
“Double Happiness” is a nearly perfect summer song. It’s the sort of song you play on a lazy day. A day when you don’t wear your watch and you don’t have to be anywhere at any particular time. And if you’re also accompanied by someone you love, well, then all the better.
-Dan MacIntosh
