''I Want That You Are Always Happy'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by Australian

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

band

The Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, released in Australia and New Zealand through Spunk Records on 8 April 2011. The album was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Mark Myers. Only one single, "Hunger Song", was released for the album. The album debuted and peaked at number 11 on the Australian Album Chart and remained on the chart for five weeks. At the J Awards of 2011, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year. At the

Queensland Music Awards The Queensland Music Awards (commonly known as QMA and known as the Q Song Awards from 2006 to 2010) are annual awards celebrating Queensland's emerging artists. They commenced in 2006. Each year, the QMA Song of the Year is immortalised in ...

of 2011, the album won Album of the Year.

Writing and recording

''I Want That You Are Always Happy'' was produced between tours in three studios over the course of 2010: Mark Myers' Townsville studio in late 2009/early 2010.

Midlake Midlake is an American folk rock band from Denton, Texas, formed in 1999. The band consists of Eric Pulido, McKenzie Smith, Scott Lee, Eric Nichelson, Jesse Chandler, and Joey McClellan. In 2012, vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter Tim S ...

's Denton Studios in March/April 2010. Mark Myers' Cairns studio, from August to November 2010. The album was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Mark Myers. Mark Myers' Cairns studio was built by the band and it was where they recorded a majority of the album. The band members did consider self-producing the record however found they had a lack of experience and knowledge in production. Rohin Jones spoke about how the band was never pleased with the final product and kept restarting, which lead to them recording throughout the year: "we scrapped it and then tried it again and scrapped that and tried it again and scrapped that, so we've really pieced it together over time. And maybe that's just how we work and we haven't come to terms with it yet, but it's definitely not the best process for writing an album." Jordan Ireland was critical about the album: "With this album I don't really feel like we nailed it, we're definitely falling into a lot of categories that've been done before and I don't feel like it's anything completely original or anything like that, but that's kind of the goal that we're heading towards."

Writing and recording

Reception

Track listing

Chart performance

References