Album Review: Hayden - Hey Love
Hayden is one of those obscure artists that I always have a
slight interest in what they are up to at this moment, but haven’t kept track
of. The other day I was listening to what is maybe his best record, 1998’s The Closer I Get, and I was like “Man I
wonder what this dude is up to right now.”
A quick Google search let me know that he had a new album
coming out in, like, two weeks. So perfect timing for me to suddenly care
again, right?
I first heard of Hayden in 1996, when he performed the somber title track to the Steve Buscemi film Trees Lounge. It was later that I saw a copy of The Closer I Get in a record store at
the mall, but because I was, like, 14 at the time, didn’t buy it. I think it
ended up with a copy of it from a used CD place when I was in college, sometime
in maybe 2003.
Anyway, like I said, I have an interest in what Hayden is up
to—like in 2004 when he released Elk Lake
Seranade and I was a little “eh” to it; or in 2007 when he opened for The
National on select dates, and I thought “oh that’s neat.” Or in 2013 when he
signed to Arts and Crafts; I was like “oh hey, that’s the label Broken Social
Scene were on. They were sure a band at one point.”
I think part of my problem is that when I see Hayden’s name
come up, associated with a new album, I read the Pitchfork review of it, and
they’ve pretty much panned his output since 2001’s Skyscraper National Park. So I think the lesson here is that I
should think for myself, and give an artist I once genuinely liked, and still
treasure at least one of their albums, a fair shot.
So we have Hayden’s latest, Hey Love, which I listened to a bulk of on my walk home from the
office on Saturday afternoon. It’s a transitional time of year here. It’s
technically spring, but there’s colder temperatures and snow in the forecast
this week. Also, nothing has bloomed yet, and the snow has all melted (for
now)—so I see all the brown grass and dead leaves I never raked last fall. So
it feels like fall, kind of. Hayden, as a whole, makes “fall” music—his whole
affect just kind of fits with that September/October ideal.
Hey Love is no
exception. But unlike The Closer I Get,
which was a transitional record for him, early on his career, Hey Love is a bit of a stagnant listen.
It sleepily shuffles along with the opening track, “Hearts Just Beat,” and then
later, sleepily shuffles along more with the title song, which is one of the
finer moments on the record, I suppose.
Like so many records that have come before Hey Love, and like so many that will
come after, this is not a bad record,
per se. It’s just not also, like, a revelation or anything. It’s not
boring—like Beck or Real Estate boring—but it’s also not exactly the most
enthralling or exhilarating listen. It
simply exists.
On my walk, I tried to place the feeling that Hey Love evokes overall—there are
moments where there are some pretty specific feelings: on the album’s “big”sounding first single, “No Where We Cannot Go,” is just huge in how triumphant
it is, begging to be used in the movie trailer for some kind of dramatic and
romantic comedy about thirtysomethings in love.
There are moments where it feels like an (early) album by
The National—I guess Boxer is what
I’m thinking. And I suppose that comes from the very moody piano arrangements
throughout, and the crisp production values on the drums. But the problem with
a comparison like this is that it’s nowhere near as literate or identifiable.
I think my real struggle with this album is that it’s not an
incredibly urgent listen and I guess that’s what I wanted. The feeling that I
got from the record as a whole is one I liken to what it’s like to do
chores—not that, like, listening to this record was a chore—but like it has the
pacing and evokes the kind of feeling one gets when yard work is the only thing
on their to-do list, or when someone tells you it’s time to clean out the
garage or work on organizing the basement.
Nearly 20 years into his career as a recording artist,
perhaps Hayden doesn’t look at making an album as a “chore,” but well into his
40s now, his music has a workman like quality to it. This is just what he does. And I think that is what
is possibly missing from Hey Love—it’s
listenable, sure, but it lacks the youthful desperation and longing that was
packed into his debut record, as well as in moments on The Closer I Get, and therefore, lacks that timelessness.
Comments
Post a Comment