Anne Richmond Boston, the Swimming Pool Q’s singer, possesses a voice that threads sweetness with steel. That balance is preserved with crystalline brilliance on her long-shelved second solo album, I Should Be Happy.
The album’s 15 songs were originally recorded in the early ’90s with producer Rob Gal at Atlanta’s Snack ’n’ Shack Studio, but remained unreleased for decades. In November 2025, the album arrived via DB Recs—the labels first release since 1992—proving that numbers such as I Should Be Happy’s title track, “Torn Apart,” and “Who Cares” are timeless. I Should Be Happy is a quiet and powerful reclamation for Boston, that finds grace in the wreckage of these once-abandoned tunes and turns them into something luminous.
The songs have been reshaped and enhanced by David Barbe and Jason Nesmith of Athens’ Chase Park Transduction, both of whom recast the album with a delicate touch and a clean spotlight on Boston’s supple and searching voice. Here, Boston leans into a warm palette with flashes of jangling pop that nod toward R.E.M., particularly in the crisp sway of “Give In.”
The alchemy that arises between “Carry Me” and “Bottle Of Sleep” is fraught with worry while remaining smart, sophisticated, and smooth, shifting from a troubled ambiance to a confident stride.
Other songs, such as “Torn Apart” and “Gone” carry a lived-in gravity, as their arrangements brush against folk and Americana while maintaining the melodic clarity that defines Boston’s songwriting. Elsewhere, “Dark Room” and “You Planned It” tap into a more electric current, recalling the Swimming Pool Q’s at their most fluid while allowing space for sharper emotional edges. Even the cover songs—“The Wind Cries Mary” and “The Music Weaver” among them—feel like conversations filtered through Boston’s distinct tonal patience.
Tenderness runs underneath it all, perhaps most evident in the spare moments, where piano or acoustic textures give her voice room to hover. It’s here that time becomes the album’s greatest collaborator. What once might have been a promising follow-up to 1990’s The Big House of Time now plays like an album that stands apart—a document of endurance and resolve.
Anne Richmond Boston plays Wax N Facts Records’ 50th anniversary party on Sunday, July 19, with Pylon Reenactment Society, All the Saints, the Swimming Pool Q’s, Uncle Green, Helionaut (w/ Paul Melançon), and Kevin Dunn’s Unresponsive in Malibu. $34.04. 5:30 p.m. (doors). 6:30 p.m. (show). Variety Playhouse.
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