As if to spite bands who talk up releasing new material every week or month as if they deserve a mention in the next honours list for it, throughout this month Darren Hayman has in his own low-key, defiantly English way been writing, recording and releasing a new song every day, in different styles while recognisably Hayman's oblique/bleak oeuvre throughout (even The French on a couple of tracks) and with a series of collaborators including Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin', Gordon Mcintyre of Ballboy, the Wave Pictures, The Voluntary Butler Scheme, brass hero Terry Edwards and former Hefner colleagues. The whole process has furthermore been documented in blogs, photos, crowdsourcing and videos on his Tumblr. Even Robert Pollard doesn't manage all that in such a short space of time.
Furthermore, rather than tossing off any old arse in the name of keeping the mad plan going, is it fair to state that it hangs together better than his last couple of proper albums have? The whole thing is very worthy of your investigation, but for now on this last day of the project here's three superior offerings:
Folk fingerpicking, guest bass clarinet and a paen to snuggling up at home with nothing and nobody else to think about.
03 Staying In by Darren Hayman
Writer of a song about Hayman Elizabeth Morris, sounding oddly like first album Laura Marling in places if you ask us, narrates gentle break-up emotional turmoil by her own hand.
10 I Know I Fucked Up (Sung By Elizabeth Morris) by Darren Hayman
Library culture and love is something Hayman's touched on before, but getting to expand on it with Madrid-based flamenco band Litoral is a new one. He claims he'd woken up with a cold, but it's not audibly affecting the tenderness.
21 Shh... by Darren Hayman
Half right Simon.
ReplyDeleteJanuary songs does have some fine tracks on it but Pram Town and Essex Arms are right up there with the best stuff Hayman has done.