Mississippi’s Happy Landing tear into the myth of the American Dream on “The American Way,” a smoldering folk rock reckoning off their sophomore album ‘Big Sun’ that exposes the hollow machinery of wealth, hustle, and ambition – all while daring listeners to ask whether the life we’re chasing was ever meant to make us whole.

 follow our Today’s Song(s) playlist

Stream: “The American Way” – HAPPY LANDING

The American Dream has always come with fine print, and on “The American Way,” Happy Landing stare straight at it – the money, the dopamine, the endless churn of ambition sold as destiny – and ask what it’s really costing us.

It’s a song about the machinery behind the myth – the quiet indoctrination that tells us productivity equals virtue and that success is something you can stack high enough to outrun your own emptiness. Beneath its swagger, it questions whether the version of “winning” we’ve inherited was ever designed to make us whole.

“Make that money, baby, dig your grave / Honey, that’s the American way,” frontman Matty Hendley sings, voice low and smoldering over a brooding groove that refuses to blink. It’s not satire for sport. It’s a reckoning – with a culture that confuses wealth for worth, hustle for purpose, and noise for truth.

That’s the way, that’s the way it goes
In this modern, in this modern world
Make that money, baby, dig your grave
Honey, that’s the American way

Released January 20, “The American Way” arrives as the latest single from the Oxford, Mississippi five-piece’s sophomore album Big Sun, out now via Too Fine Records. Formed in 2020, Happy Landing – Matty Hendley (lead vocals, guitar), Keegan Christensen (vocals, keys), Jacob Christensen (drums), Andrew Gardner (fiddle, vocals), and Wilson Moyer (bass/guitar, vocals) – have built a reputation as one of the most dynamic young bands in modern folk rock, blending southern grit, indie urgency, and anthemic hooks into something that feels both road-worn and sharply contemporary. After a breakout debut in Golden and a year of relentless touring, the band return heavier, darker, and more deliberate, sharpening both their sound and their perspective.

Hendley began writing “The American Way” in fragments over several years. “It started out as just an acoustic song that felt like it cut very deep,” he tells Atwood. “Then there was a point where I thought it could resonate even more if it was more of that brooding, rock-leaning power that you hear in the song.” The result is sultry and swagger-heavy – heavy drums locking into a lived-in pulse, gritty guitars circling like smoke in a dim barroom, even the percussive clatter of money change drawers embedded into the beat. It simmers rather than explodes, letting tension build until the refrain lands like a hard truth you can’t un-hear.

God bless Uncle Sam
Hit me with that dopamine
Money is a drug,
freedom isn’t free

Hallelujah, make me rich
The devil’s in the politics
I don’t know what’s true
Just the red, white and blue

Lyrically, the song doesn’t hide behind metaphor. “Money is a drug, freedom isn’t free.” It’s a line Hendley says still means exactly what it did when he wrote it: “The song is meant to go beyond politics and really make the listener think about what we value, who we listen to and promote, and what really is the end goal for America and for our individual lives.” That clarity runs through every verse – from dopamine hits and dollar signs to kings of Hollywood and algorithms raised on the internet. It’s seductive language, because the system itself is seductive.

That’s the way
that’s the way it goes
In this modern, in this modern world
Make that money, baby,
dig your grave
Honey, that’s the American way

What makes “The American Way” hit harder is its refusal to posture.

Hendley describes watching people “get sucked into living a normal life, with a job they hate, chasing money, status and retirement… It didn’t seem like truly living, it seemed more like digging a grave with a golden shovel.” That image lodges deep. The band were just entering their twenties when they formed, coming of age in a world where burnout is normalized and validation is monetized. “The American Way” doesn’t pretend to offer easy alternatives – it simply asks whether this is the life we actually want.

Sonically, it’s one of the boldest moments on Big Sun, an album that balances its heaviest themes with flashes of brightness and lift. “This album is definitely the most mature piece of work we’ve put together,” Keegan Christensen explains. The band push into darker textures while strengthening the brighter, anthemic instincts that first defined them. Placed between a bright, airy track and one titled “Gallows,” “The American Way” sits at the center of that tension – the sun blazing overhead, the shadows stretching long beneath it.

And it lands at a moment when its questions feel especially urgent. In an era of rampant and public corruption, where greed and division dominate headlines and power often goes unchecked, silence is complicity. Songs like this matter not because they shout, but because they refuse to look away. If we can’t name the rot – if we can’t challenge the systems that reward crooks and conmen while punishing community and care – then we can’t hope to change them. Happy Landing don’t call out specific names; they don’t need to. The critique is bigger than a single administration or election cycle. It’s about the culture that allows corruption to metastasize in the first place.

Hail the kings of Hollywood
Dollar sign, Zuckerberg
Going down like honey,
do it for the money

Believe in anything we’ve read
We grew up on the internet
Going down like honey,
do it for the money

If the American Dream was meant to offer freedom and possibility, then “The American Way” asks whether we’ve mistaken the chase for the dream itself.

For Happy Landing, “The American Way” isn’t a rejection of hope – it’s an insistence on it. Big Sun may wrestle with ambition, burnout, and distortion, but its spirit is still forward-looking. Acknowledging the past. Confronting the present. Driving toward something brighter. “That’s the way it goes in this modern world,” they sing, and the groove rolls on – heavy, relentless, unflinching. The weight doesn’t let up, and neither should we.

If this is the dream, maybe it’s time we wake up.

Happy Landing recently sat down with Atwood Magazine to discuss the stories, tensions, and lived observations behind “The American Way” and their sophomore album Big Sun. Read our conversation below – and spend some time with a song that dares to ask what the American Dream is really costing us.

That’s the way,
that’s the way it goes
In this modern, in this modern world
Make that money, baby,
dig your grave
Honey, that’s the American way
Honey, that’s the American Way

— —

:: stream/purchase The American Way here ::

:: connect with HAPPY LANDING here ::

:: stream/purchase Big Sun here ::

— —

Stream: “The American Way” – HAPPY LANDING

A CONVERSATION WITH HAPPY LANDING

Keegan Christensen: We’re just five people who love music. We’re all very different – We approach the creative process differently, we play different instruments, we listen to different music, but somehow our mixed bag of tastes and knowledge comes together to form this folky, rocky, poppy blend of music. If you’re just discovering us I would say no matter what you like to listen to, we probably have at least one song for you. If you want a recommendation feel free to DM us on Instagram and we’ll send you a rec!

Keegan Christensen: Mt. Joy, Cage the Elephant, The Head & The Heart… the list could probably keep going. We all have different music tastes, so the influences come from all around the place, which definitely shows in the music. For this new album, I’m excited that we found a way to elevate our sound without completely shifting our brand or genre or identity. We’ve all seemed to step up our game in the music creation process and I think it shows. At our core, we are a touring band, so we’re also excited to play these new songs live and see how they evolve that way as well.

Matty Hendley: I wrote “The American Way” in pieces over the last few years. It started out as just an acoustic song that felt like it cut very deep, and then there was a point where I thought it could resonate even more if it was more of that brooding, rock-leaning power that you hear in the song. My favorite addition when we recorded with the band was the money change drawers you hear in the beat.

Matty Hendley: We were just entering our twenties when we started this band, so we have naturally all experienced the real, modern world over the years since then. For me, it was realizing that a lot of folks just sort of get sucked into living a normal life, with a job they hate, chasing money, status and retirement. It didn’t seem like truly living, it seemed more like digging a grave with a golden shovel. I just was so unattracted to this way of life that I wondered if there was another way to live, and if maybe the social structures we have make it easy for folks to fall into the rat race.

Matty Hendley: It seems like those words will always ring true, and probably have for a very long time. I think it still means the same thing it did back when I wrote it. The song is meant to go beyond politics and really make the listener think about what we value, who we listen to and promote, and what really is the end goal for America and for our individual lives. This song and another song of ours, Machines, share similar sentiments.

Keegan Christensen: This album is definitely the most mature piece of work we’ve put together. We’re exploring darker themes and sounds, while also strengthening the brighter sounds we’ve historically clung to. As we’ve grown as people and musicians, we’ve started to explore more with our sound and push the boundaries of what we can be as a band, while still keeping this folky, anthemic foundation. In the tracklist, “The American Way” follows a very bright and airy song called “10,000 Degrees” and then precedes a song called “Gallows” (which you can probably guess by the title is not very bright and airy). It is seemingly ironic that our album with the darkest themes is called “Big Sun,” but somehow mixing these darker, heavier songs with these bright, happy-sounding songs just makes sense. The spirit of Big Sun is acknowledging the past, acknowledging our issues, and still looking forward. Driving away towards the bright, Big Sun. That’s how “The American Way” and all these other songs work together.

Keegan Christensen: We put a lot of work into Golden, but we put a LOTTTTTT more into Big Sun. This was the first time we had intentionally taken extended time off from touring to focus on new music. It’s also the first time we’ve partnered with a label. All these things (time, label, etc.) doesn’t necessarily mean better music, but in our case I think it really helped. It allowed us to regroup, reset, and figure out where we actually want to go with our artistic direction. Everything you see and hear from Big Sun is intentional and strategic, but it’s also just authentically us. The new branding and sound doesn’t stray too far from what we’ve done before, we’ve just taken what we were already good at and elevated it. We’ll always love Golden, but we’re so ready for this Big Sun chapter.

Keegan Christensen: Truth, justice, and the American way would still be a great motto if we actually still operated under America’s original core values. If it was still widely accepted across all people that we are a free nation that believes in free speech and religion… that we are a melting pot of cultures and identities… that everybody deserves life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness… then this would be great. Unfortunately, it seems as if these values are dwindling and it feels as though our current nation is operating under the motto “greed, hate, and unrelenting division.”

Keegan Christensen: I hope people can take what they need from this album… If you want to think, some of these lyrics will really make you think. If you want to feel, a lot of songs are great for that. If you just want to vibe, you can do that too. And what I’ve learned from creating and putting out these songs is exactly that… There is no “right” way to create music. People seek music for different reasons. A song doesn’t necessarily need a deeper meaning to connect with people, but some people like having that. A song doesn’t need to be a chart-topping pop anthem – some people are going to connect most with the most obscure song that barely even made the album. If you create what you want to create, then the right people will find it and use it how they wish. That is what I’ve learned and what I hope people find in Big Sun.

Happy Landing: We all have different tastes in music. Here’s some of our recommendations right now: Keegan – After, Matty – Public Library Commute, Wilson – Toby Fox, Jacob – Gang of Youths

— —

:: stream/purchase The American Way here ::

:: connect with HAPPY LANDING here ::

:: stream/purchase Big Sun here ::

— —

Stream: “The American Way” – HAPPY LANDING

— — — —

Connect to HAPPY LANDING on
Facebook, 𝕏, TikTok, Instagram

Discover new music on Atwood Magazine

 © Orchee Sorker

:: Today’s Song(s) ::

 follow our daily playlist on Spotify

:: Stream HAPPY LANDING ::