Zoon confronts generational trauma and finds pop gold on new album ‘Happy Thought School’

Zoon is back, and this time they’re pulling no punches. The Anishinaabe artist behind the “moccasin-gaze” sound just dropped their new album, ‘Happy Thought School’ via Paper Bag Records, and it’s out now wherever you stream.

The lead single, You Can’t See Me (This Low), is a lo-fi pop gut-punch about relapse and despair, tracing Zoon’s own path through heartbreak, loss, and recovery. It’s the kind of song that sounds sweet on the surface but hits different once you sit with the lyrics — which is basically the whole philosophy behind this record.

The title track is where things get really personal. Zoon layers in archival recordings of their mother and aunt, who attended the same school decades before — back when they weren’t even allowed off the bus. Despite the cheerful name, the school was a place where Zoon faced racism as one of the only Native students there, and pop radio became an escape valve, blasting through headphones while standing alone in a field. That tension between joyful surface and painful undercurrent runs through the entire album.

“As I got older, I realized how damaging that experience at Happy Thought School really was, especially because the name itself felt so contradictory to what I lived through there. I carried a lot of mental pain from that time and turned to substances to cope with those memories. Then, when I got a 24-track recorder, I started recording those emotions instead of burying them.“

From Bleached Wavves to Now: A Quick Rewind

Zoon first turned heads with ‘Bleached Wavves’ in 2020, a record that introduced the world to their genre-blending mix of shoegaze haze and Anishinaabe storytelling. It spent 7 weeks at #1 on the Earshot Chart, hit #1 on the NACC Top 30, and landed coverage from The New York Times, Pitchfork, CBC, The Fader, and KEXP — plus a Polaris Music Prize shortlist nod.

They followed it up with ‘Bekka Ma’iingan’ in 2023, leaning further into Anishinaabe language and memory, scoring another #1 at Earshot and NACC, a JUNO nomination for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group, and a Polaris shortlist spot for the OMBIIGIZI collaboration with Adam Sturgeon.

‘Happy Thought School’ Track list

1. Beautiful II
2. One Too Many Nights (feat. Sam Jr.)
3. Atactic
4. I Was Younger
5. Happy Thought School
6. OMNI II
7. Olivia’s Tears
8. You Can’t See Me (This Low)
9. How Many More Times
10. Used and Stapled (One Last Dance)

Grab ‘Happy Thought School’ here

Catch Zoon live in Toronto on July 11 at Osler Records.