A decade on from Feel Something, Movements are still staring down the darkness, only now they sound more confident about what they see…

Words by Felix Bartlett | Sep 06, 2026

---

There’s a particular kind of nostalgia tied up in a band’s debut album, the one that soundtracked a specific chapter of your life before you knew it was a chapter at all. Feel Something did that for plenty of us back at uni, and hearing Movements dig back into that same well on album number four, without simply retracing their steps, is the kind of full-circle moment that actually means something.

Happier Now doesn’t waste time getting there. Opener ‘Pulse’ establishes the mood straight away, with woozy guitars swirling beneath Patrick Miranda’s unmistakable croon as he wrestles with the feeling that, despite everything, some things never really change. The difference is that Movements themselves sound more assured than ever. That contrast, between a frontman still picking at familiar doubts and a band operating with complete confidence, becomes one of the album’s defining strengths. ‘Dissolve Me’ takes that tension and turns it into something far more immediate, with Ira George’s guitar lines darting around Spencer York’s drums before everything opens up into one of the record’s biggest hooks. It’s ridiculously catchy without sanding away the unease at its core, its themes of social anxiety and everyday overwhelm giving the song considerably more weight than its instant appeal might suggest.

The second half is where Happier Now feels most comfortable balancing the band’s past with where they are now. ‘Back In My Ways’ comes closest to the rawness of their earlier material, beginning cautiously before building into a heavier, riff-driven release. Given Miranda’s reported reluctance to revisit that side of the band, there’s something fitting about hearing it emerge here without feeling like an attempt to recreate Feel Something. The title track plays its own game with expectation, its confident instrumentation sitting beneath a question that remains deliberately unanswered. ‘Ill At Ease’ and ‘Live By The Sword’ keep the pressure building, both carrying an unsettled energy that refuses to properly resolve. Then comes ‘Spellbound’, a stripped-back moment that feels almost suspended in the middle of the record, before the weight returns. Closer ‘Separate’ leaves things similarly unsettled, drawing from a period when the pressure surrounding Miranda became overwhelming. It’s a fitting way to end an album that repeatedly chooses honesty over easy answers.

Will Yip’s production deserves plenty of credit, too. The album has enough breathing room for its quieter moments to actually land, particularly on ‘Everything Is Fine’ and ‘Fragile Hands’, but when Movements decide to turn up the intensity, the guitars and drums hit with real force. More importantly, the production never makes the band sound like they’re trying to recreate an older version of themselves. There are obvious echoes of what came before, but Happier Now feels like a progression rather than an exercise in nostalgia.

As summer edges into autumn, this is going to be the record a lot of us reach for through the darker months ahead, and for very good reason. Happier Now takes everything that made Movements a band worth falling for in the first place and gives it the perspective that comes with another decade behind them. It’s not simply a return to form. It’s a record about recognising old patterns, sitting with them, and figuring out what comes next. For a band whose music has always found beauty in discomfort, Happier Now might be their most assured statement yet.

Verdict: 💀💀💀💀💀

For fans of: Silverstein, The Story So Far, Being As An Ocean

Happier Now is out now via Fearless Records.