Alexis Jordan has made me so very happy this spring. The 18-year-old former America’s Got Talent contestant, now signed to the Jay-Z/Kanye West-run Roc Nation label, has just released her official debut single, “Happiness.” I first heard the song via a Sony sampler I picked up from one of my local record stores’ giveaway box last month, and ever since, it’s been getting heavy rotation on my car stereo system, usually at such an extreme volume as to embarrass and/or totally annoy my teenage son. “Happiness” represents the kind of delicious unexpected meeting of two distinct flavors that commercials for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups celebrated when I was a kid. Instead of chocolate and peanut butter, here we have a defiantly un-guilty pleasure teen pop song built over a composition by up-and-coming Canadian hipster-bait trance-house artist deadmau5 called “Brazil (2nd Edit)”. “Happiness” isn’t just based on a sample of the deadmau5 song. It is the deadmau5 song… only with the Alexis Jordan song slathered all over the top of it like so much sweet, sweet, frothy, frothy Ready-Whip. A genius proposition executed in genius fashion, sure to turn as many people on to Miss Jordan as it will to Mr. mau5. This week, the song’s video premiered on Vevo. You can also currently pick up a free download of the song by signing up for her e-mail list at her website.
