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.

Hey Love is out Tuesday on CD and digitally via Arts and Crafts. The vinyl has been delayed until April (because vinyl.)


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