With her third A&M Records release, Happy?, Jann Arden has arrived at a critical career apex, ushering in a new era in this remarkable singer/songwriter's personal and artistic growth. The album radiates with the musical emblems we've come to identify with Jann Arden; untrammeled lyrical honesty, framed by supple vocals and complex sonic arrangements.

The three years since the sextuple-platinum Living Under June have afforded Arden a keen sociological perspective; the ineluctable advance of time, the rigors of constant touring, and the upheaval of critical and commercial success have produced a unique narrative voice. The hallmarks of Arden's ongoing artistic metamorphosis - wit, wisdom and song craftsmanship - have crested in Happy?, enshrining her place as one of Canada's most incandescent and accomplished artists. Risking understatement, Arden will say only: "Making a record is like catching a little piece of time. I write honest songs, I write about what I know".

Despite the stripped down approach, Arden admits to struggling with the writing of this album. "It was a very panic-stricken time for me. I was hard on myself because I didn't think I had anything to say. When I discovered that I did, there was such a sense of relief, a feeling that I was going to be O.K." The 10 songs on Happy? bear this out, revealing a serene but passionate artist, a fervent but gentle muse. "I am positive, Arden says firmly. "I'm not an angry young woman." Back in the recording fold is some of the finest musical talent in North America. Ed Cherney (Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt), the production force behind Arden's double-platinum 1993 debut Time for Mercy, and co-producer with Arden for Living Under June, returns to twiddle the knobs for Happy?. Arden herself co-produces.

Many of the top-notch musicians that worked with Arden before have been re-commissioned; Jeffrey "C.J." Vanston (Tina Turner, Joe Cocker) returns on keyboards, as does Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, Melissa Etheridge, John Fogerty) on drums, Mike Lent (k.d. lang) on bass, and Russell Broom on electric guitar. Jim Keltner (John Lennon, Travelling Wilbury's), Jennifer Condos (Bob Dylan, Don Henley), Greg Leisz (k.d. lang, Joe Cocker, Brian Wilson) Mark Goldenberg (Jackson Browne, Brian Wilson) and Lenny Castro round out the musical lineup on drums and percussion, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and percussion, respectively. The lush background vocals are once again supplied by Lin Elder and Dillon O'Brian.

Living Under June's breathtaking success was crowned with Arden hosting the 1997 Juno Awards. The album produced a hit single stateside with "Insensitive", and world-wide album sales of over 1.3 million (released in 26 countries, hitting the Top 10 in Italy and #1 in Australia), 600,000 of those in Canada. Arden was honoured with the coveted "Female Vocalist of the Year" award, as well as "Songwriter of the Year" and best single of the year for "Could I Be Your Girl" at the 1995 Junos.

The artistic collaboration between Arden and director Jeth Weinrich continued apace, with Weinrich scoring wins in both the Best Director category as well as "Video of the Year" for "Insensitive" at the 1995 MuchMusic Video Awards. The year prior, when Arden was chosen "Best New Solo Performer" at the Junos, also saw Weinrich collect the best video kudo for his work on Arden's "I Would Die For You".

Weinrich is on board to direct the first single "The Sound Of" from Arden's new album. She deconstructs their synchronicity thusly: "Jeth and I are really unorganized, so we don't intimidate each other. He's wiggy, just like I am, and when we get together, for split seconds, we can actually be coherent".

This upstart with the rapier-like wit and deadpan humour stepped onto the Canadian musical landscape in 1993 with Time For Mercy. Then a little-known singer/songwriter from Calgary, Arden's sole musical experience was busking for change on street corners. Time For Mercy changed everything, selling more than 200,000 albums in Canada, and producing the hit singles "I Would Die For You" and "Will You Remember Me."

The stunning collection of songs on Happy? perfectly illustrate Arden's incomparable knack for evoking pictures through words. It's found fully realized in songs like "Saved" and "Holy Moses", the latter with its haunting, sparse instrumentation, accompanied only by Arden and Elder's unearthly harmonies. Arden describes the album's first single, "The Sound Of" as "a song about sounds you can't even hear "Oh the sound of the wind through my heart makes me glad/for all the ones that never knew my name". Arden says, "It's about things you agonize over, but ultimately can't do anything about". The themes of stillness and loss play out further, sometimes with anguish, on songs like "Ode to a Friend", and "Hanging by a Thread"; "The salt inside my body ruins/everyone I come close to/My hands are barely holding up my head/Oh I'm so tired of looking at my feet/And all the secrets that I keep".

Love's ephemeral nature is conjured up in "Wishing That", with its nakedly emotional refrain "Wishing that you love me too" and "And you could see through/everything I said I was falling/and you said not to fall on you/I've bitten every finger 'till it bled" The summoning of images through language is perhaps nowhere more evident that on the extraordinary "Weeds", which was inspired, Arden says, by Billy Cowsill (The Cowsills, Blue Shadows). The startling declaration that "I am like a weed at the side of the road/Nothing but filthy air/gotta get out of here/ I'm like a weed and you know how hard they can be to kill/and you can't kill me" is Arden at her allegorical best, but also suggests a more sophisticated reckoning with life's vagaries. "It's about making big mistakes, Arden says."It's about facing adversity and carrying on." "I will get by" repeats stolidly, and emerges as the songs central, unifying theme.

This tenacity and spirit have informed Arden's career every step of the way. Future success appears certain to eclipse past accomplishments, but Arden has her feet firmly planted. She sums herself up. "I'm down to earth, not at all starstruck. I'm a good friend to my friends. At heart, I'm just a small-town girl singing about simple sentiment".