Album artwork for Which Way to Happy by Penelope Isles

When you’re trying to make it through tough times, you need a little light to find your way. That light blazes brightly on the alchemical second album from Penelope Isles, an album forged amid emotional upheaval and band changes. Setting the uncertainties of twentysomething life to alt-rock and psychedelic songs brimming with life, colour and feeling, Which Way to Happy emerges as a luminous victory for Jack and Lily Wolter, the siblings whose bond holds the band tight at its core. Produced by Jack and mixed by US alt-rock legend Dave Fridmann, the result is an intoxicating leap forward for the Brighton-based band, following the calling-card DIY smarts of their 2019 debut, Until the Tide Creeps In. Sometimes it swoons, sometimes it soars. Sometimes it says it’s OK to not be OK. And sometimes it says it’s OK to look for the way to happy, too. Pitched between fertile coastal metaphors and winged melodies, intimate confessionals and expansive cosmic pop, deep sorrows and serene soul-pop pick-you-ups, it transforms “difficult second album” clichés into a thing of glorious contrasts: a second-album surge of up-close, heartfelt intimacies and expansive, experimental vision.

Penelope Isles

Which Way to Happy

Bella Union
Album artwork for Which Way to Happy by Penelope Isles
LP +

£22.99

With Fanzine

Clear
Released 18/11/2022Catalogue Number

BELLA1247VX

Learn more
Album artwork for Which Way to Happy by Penelope Isles
LP

£22.99

180 Gram Vinyl with A4 Print.

Clear
Released 28/01/2022Catalogue Number

BELLA1247V

Learn more
Album artwork for Which Way to Happy by Penelope Isles
CD

£11.99£2.99

sale
Released 21/01/2022Catalogue Number

BELLA1247CD

Learn more
Penelope Isles

Which Way to Happy

Bella Union
Album artwork for Which Way to Happy by Penelope Isles
LP +

£22.99

With Fanzine

Clear
Released 18/11/2022Catalogue Number

BELLA1247VX

Learn more
Album artwork for Which Way to Happy by Penelope Isles
LP

£22.99

180 Gram Vinyl with A4 Print.

Clear
Released 28/01/2022Catalogue Number

BELLA1247V

Learn more
Album artwork for Which Way to Happy by Penelope Isles
CD

£11.99£2.99

sale
Released 21/01/2022Catalogue Number

BELLA1247CD

Learn more

When you’re trying to make it through tough times, you need a little light to find your way. That light blazes brightly on the alchemical second album from Penelope Isles, an album forged amid emotional upheaval and band changes. Setting the uncertainties of twentysomething life to alt-rock and psychedelic songs brimming with life, colour and feeling, Which Way to Happy emerges as a luminous victory for Jack and Lily Wolter, the siblings whose bond holds the band tight at its core. Produced by Jack and mixed by US alt-rock legend Dave Fridmann, the result is an intoxicating leap forward for the Brighton-based band, following the calling-card DIY smarts of their 2019 debut, Until the Tide Creeps In. Sometimes it swoons, sometimes it soars. Sometimes it says it’s OK to not be OK. And sometimes it says it’s OK to look for the way to happy, too. Pitched between fertile coastal metaphors and winged melodies, intimate confessionals and expansive cosmic pop, deep sorrows and serene soul-pop pick-you-ups, it transforms “difficult second album” clichés into a thing of glorious contrasts: a second-album surge of up-close, heartfelt intimacies and expansive, experimental vision.