headlessparrot's Full Review: Everything I Long For by Hayden (Rock)
Pop Quiz! What does Hayden have in common with Bob Marley, Phish, and SpongeBob SquarePants? The answer is fairly obvious if you are or are related to a college student, especially one who goes to school somewhere in the Dominion of Canada. All of the above are standard “burnt” forms of media, the term my brother, friends, and foes alike use to describe forms of media specifically conducive to consumption of mind-altering substances. You see, chances are if you wander by a college or university dormitory sometime in the late afternoon, you’re going to hear the powerful rhythm of Bob Marley - and more often than not it will be a song from the Legend compilation (I’ve got this theory that it’s mandatory for college students to own a copy of Legend, but I’m still working out the details). And if it’s not Marley, you’ll hear strains of Phish, or the irritating high-pitch squeal of that lovable SpongeBob. But Hayden… What about Hayden?
Much like toques, maple syrup, and the word ‘eh,’ Hayden is a Canadian phenomenon. I bet most of you are saying something along the lines of, “guh?” or, “who?” And those who aren’t are either Canadian, spent a small chunk of their lives in Canada, or lives somewhere near the border between the Americans and Canadians. I don’t know about any other countries (although I’d have to reason that based on the success of several other Canadian artists overseas, that Hayden isn’t doing too badly), but up here in the Great White North, Hayden has achieved near-celebrity status. And he’s done it all from his bedroom in his parents’ home.
Paul Hayden Dresser, a young man who hails from Toronto, is the product of your typical suburban upbringing. He goes to the corner store to get a chocolate bar. He wakes up late in the afternoon, and spends hours absorbing cable television. In short, he’s just like everyone else. In fact, the majority of Hayden’s major-label debut was recorded on a four-track at his parents’ home - after he got home from work at night and before he went to bed at night. As a result, Hayden’s music has a sort of lo-fi honesty to it, that’s both endearing and emotionally charged. The only difference between Dresser and the rest of the suburbanites populating our planet is that he has a specific knack for storytelling and poetry.
So, just like Canada’s other troubadour Neil Young, Hayden Dresser chose to express his talent with an acoustic guitar and a piano. That’s not where the similarities between the two artists end, either. Hayden’s voice, at times, bears a striking resemblance to that of Young. However, while Young’s voice pretty much sounds the same at all times, the younger rocker has a wide range. His baritone growl is reminiscent of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, and when he reaches higher ranges, there’s an almost eerie similarity to that of grunge uber-God Kurt Cobain. Hell, Hayden’s music as a whole has a very “grunge” feel to it - minus the feedback and wild electric guitar, of course.
Neil Young, interestingly enough, was not only one of Dresser’s heroes, he was also the one who discovered the homemade singer-songwriter, setting off a major bidding war in the process. Everything I Long For was recorded and released by Hayden independently, only shortly before the hype machine began to spin and he signed to Hardwood Records (a division of Universal). But before Hardwood could even begin distributing the record themselves, it had already sold 30,000 copies nationwide! Considering the population of the entire country of Canada, that’s an absolutely stunning number. A friend of mine did the math and came up with a figure saying that nearly 1% of all Canadians own the original, Independent version of Everything I Long For. While I think his math might be off a little, that’s still a mind-boggling figure, especially when you consider the fact that Canada is country with the second largest land mass in the entire world. Somehow, several thousand copies of an independent record had made their way thousands of miles, to all corners of the country.
And when Hardwood picked up the album (dropping two tracks from it in the process, the b*stards), it started selling even more. Since then, Hayden's stock has fallen somewhat, but his music has progressed steadily with the recent release of his third studio album, Skyscraper National Park, and a live recording that is still only available north of the border (Live at Convocation Hall, a live performance that my brother attended). But fans and critics alike hail Everything I Long For as the best album Hayden has released.
There are thousands of acoustic guitar-strumming, self-proclaimed poets out there. So what separates our Hayden from all of these wannabes? It’s simple really. Although he isn’t skilled technically-speaking, he is one of the finest songwriters to achieve any level of mainstream success in several years. His writing has an honesty to it that appeals to all different types of people. He examines different situations from different perspectives and creates intricate stories with beginnings, middles and endings. There are songs about love, loss, isolation, depression, and everything else that a suburban youth is exposed to over his or her lifetime. And unlike some artists, the emotion can always be felt.
Hayden’s voice is superb for expressing everything from doubt to love to hate. It can quiver, or it can thunder. And his trusty twelve-string acoustic guitar always comes for the ride. Sometimes it’s just a simple, quiet melody, and sometimes he strums so loudly and so hurtfully that you can hear the metallic twang as the strings vibrate against the fretboard. There are also a number of touches on each song. Although they rarely include a drum track, there is often a tinkling piano or harmonica found at different points of the record. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Everything I Long For is the sound quality. Considering the vast majority of the record was recorded in the most basic way possible, the sound quality is excellent. The record was mixed superbly, giving almost no hint of the manner in which it was recorded - except, of course, in the liner notes when it states “tracks 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13 * 14 recorded by hayden in hayden’s room.”
The album begins with Hayden coughing before beginning to strum out a rhythm on his acoustic. Bad As They Seem is, as of yet, Hayden’s most successful track - receiving significant airplay on MTV2 and some alternative radio stations. The track is a perfect example of the young man’s song writing abilities. Basically, he discusses his fantasies in the verses before stopping to tell himself that he needs to get out some more. The song shows a real vulnerability to it, with an extremely slow and heartfelt harmonica solo about halfway through.
In September is one of the harder tracks on the record, featuring more than just the classic acoustic guitar formula to it. One of the songs actually recorded in a professional studios, there’s a real aggression to it as he seems to be singing to an ex: “I don’t need to/Take this sh*t from you/I don’t want you/Calling me up at two.” The rare presence of drums and electric guitars really fits with the darkness and pain of the song.
We Don’t Mind tells the story of a man and woman who both call in sick to work so that they can spend the day together. Tragedy is a soft and introspective number with a very dark guitar rhythm driving it, while Stem is an under-two minute love song featuring one of the most beautiful set of lyrics I’ve ever heard:
Bought a rose to give to you
Windy day, the petals flew
From the stem into the street
I tried to catch them with my feet
I got to your door, you looked to see
Through the peep-hole right at me
You let me in and I just froze
I gave you a stem, it was a rose, was a rose
These three tracks are followed by Skates. When I said that Hayden’s ability was telling stories about simple events, this is what I was talking about. I see a man buying a pair of skates, that’s all I see. When Hayden saw a man buying a pair of ice skates, he came up with the song Skates, one of the most chillingly dark songs I’ve heard in years. Over the same, slow acoustic guitar, Hayden tells the story of a man who goes to a department store to buy a pair of ice skates. The verses are very softly-spoken, while the chorus recalls the kind of Eddie Vedder growl I spoke for. Written from the point of view of the person working at the store, details keep unravelling as the song builds to a crescendo, in which the old man explains why he needs the skates.
I asked, are you a pro?
He looked sad and said 'no.'
‘These skates my last hope.
Without them I cannot cope.'
And he said, 'my wife, she drowned this summer
Behind our house, the river took her
I cannot swim, I need to find her, I will wait
Till it freezes over, and then I will skate
As far as it takes.
I will skate, as far as it takes
To bring her back home.'
This final verse is just absolutely haunting, a situation that I just seem to recount over and over in my mind. As a song, it’s just brutally depressing, but I just hope to God that the song isn’t based on a true story. If it were, I think I might cry.
I’m To Blame is a short, two-and-a-half minute piece featuring Hayden singing while playing an intricate piano line at the same time. Much like the rest of the record, the song is very soft, and has a slow melody to it that makes it feel even more sad and depressing. Following that are Assignment In Space With Rip Foster and Driveway, the former an an instrumental featuring only the guitar of Dresser, played in a manner that allows you to hear the squeak of his fingers sliding along the guitar string and the buzzing of his guitar which is a result of it’s set-up. The latter is another harder number featuring a number of instruments including the electric and acoustic guitars as well as a quiet piano far-off in the background. The lyrics have a very strange, musicality to them, although they recount a story just like the other tracks on Everything I Long For.
Hardly goes back to the bedroom formula on track nine, although it’s surprisingly one of the songs not recorded in his parent’s home. The song deals with insecurities and about not being able to work up the nerve to talk to a girl, and the lyrics have a very personal quality to them that make the song both touching and sad. There’s some violins in the mix, although they are pushed fairly far back and are more of a subconscious thing than an actual piece of the music.
You Were Loved sounds somewhat like Tragedy, but the two songs are different enough that they don’t get boring when played over and over again together. I like how Hayden seems to spit out the last word of every line hear, which creates an atmosphere of pain an hatred.
When This Is Over is another example of Hayden’s morbid song writing (and the way I see it, there are about fourteen examples of it on this disc), transforming a real-life story into the context of a song. Hayden sings from the point of view of a little boy in a car that their mother pushed into a river. The song is based on the true story of Susan Smith’s murder of her two children. The boy wonders why this is happening, because he cleaned his room and brushed his teeth like he was supposed to. This is another song, along with Skates that brings me to the brink of tears every time I hear it. It’s real evidence of Hayden’s skills at storytelling.
The album closes with My Parent’s House and Lounging, the former being a piano driven number about trying to reconcile a broken relationship. Hayden whistles along with the piano at one point, creating a lovely contrast between his voice and the instrument. Lounging is closes the album out respectfully, asking a question that I always seem to ask myself: “Why do I/stay up till three/Lounging, eating, watching TV?”
There’s really no description that can adequately describe the music of Paul Hayden Dresser. I’ve heard hundreds of people try to come up with something that accurately describes the man’s sound. The best I could find came from a user at Amazon.com, who described it as Ambient-grunge. I don’t really care for the word grunge, but the name just seems to fit so well, and Hayden’s lyrics have some of the same biting cynicism and dark content that Kurt Cobain, Jerry Cantrell, and Layne Staley did.
Hayden won’t change the world. If the world were fair he would, but alas, it’s not. But even if he doesn’t, Hayden remains one of the most talented artists of the last several years. Only time will tell if he can have the same longevity as the likes of Neil Young or Bob Dylan. But he’s doing just fine right now.
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