headlessparrot's Full Review: Skyscraper National Park by Hayden (Rock)
Things change. People change. It is, apparently, part of our nature as living, breathing beings to grow not only physically but emotionally as well. As the branches of a tree gradually diverge into a larger and larger area of the ground, and as once beautiful flowers eventually die and rot, so do humans change. I apologize for waxing poetic, but that was the best way that I could get across the idea behind the review that is to follow. It seems an inherently human trait, growth does, despite the fact that we aren’t the only animal that does so. Its sort of odd, in a philosophical sort of way, how we as humans perceive ourselves, isn’t it? And for that matter, aren’t there just literally thousand of unanswerable questions rollicking about in your brain? The same ones that, for thousands of years, philosophers, theologists, and social scientists have searched for the answers to. It turns out, in fact, that you aren’t the only one left sitting in front of your television late at night pondering the minute intricacies of life that seem to consume us all. Hayden, sits there too, beside you in a spiritual sort of way, placing corn chips into his mouth, watching late night infomercials and just thinking. A time alone, away from any distractions, to just think. I suppose that us humans haven’t just sat around and thought much since the early days of humanity. Like most of the time, I’m not quite sure what I’m getting at, but I can feel somewhere in the back of my head that this is an important thing to consider. For the life of me, I can’t say why. But that fading light remains.
Paul Hayden Desser is Canada’s latest gift to the world of music. Yes, I know. We’re sorry for Celine Dion. And Shania Twain… And Avril Lavigne… But I swear, this fellow more than makes up for our past musical transgressions. You see, Paul Hayden Desser is not just a suburban Canadian youth, but he’s a suburban Canadian youth with the soul of a poet and the approach of a well-seasoned rock veteran. Born in 1971, Hayden - his rock and roll moniker - began his career as a struggling indie musician, creating a sort of post-punk, acoustic and ambient grunge sound that defies any description I can possibly give it. Starting in the early 1990s, Hayden utilized the bare bones functionality of a four-track recorder to create a self-funded and released debut album in 1994 - an album that has long since become a treasured item on the indie rock completist’s list of purchases. Hayden’s individual effort, the detuned guitars and his range defying voice combined with the four-track to create an album that was as lo-fi and as honest as anything released in the last twenty years. And while the recording technology has increased, Hayden’s music continues to maintain a uniquely lo-fi quality in spite of the presence of horns, strings, and tinkling pianos. The self-released debut was home too much of the material that would eventually become Hayden’s debut. Everything I Long For, a melancholic but extremely powerful record that would attract the interest of Neil Young.
Since his discovery, Hayden has remained on the fringe of North American pop culture, in spite of releasing some of the most incredibly visceral yet beautiful recordings that have graced record stores. In true indie rock fashion, Hayden recorded and released an entire load of singles, EPs and 7” limited edition recordings. The full-length major label debut The Closer I Get was both lauded and panned by critics, ruining the younger songwriter’s plan for world domination. In fact, it seems that the relative failure of The Closer I Get drove Hayden away from his instrument for quiet a long time in an attempt to recuperate from the numbness.
Hayden was dropped from his label, and for the next year-or-so, he kept largely to himself. He didn’t tour, instead returning to his pre-fame home with his parents and moving back into the cycle of daily living that inspired much of Everything I Long For. 2001 found Hayden take another stab at creating music, this time creating it for himself rather than for an audience. The four-track was dusted off, and he and a small group of friends went about recording the eleven tracks that make up Skyscraper National Park, a return to the quiet introspection of Hayden’s early days. Originally only 100 copies of the record were pressed, complete with handmade packaging. When that was snatched up in short order, a second run of 2,500 copies were released, and Hayden eventually signed to a new record label who distributed it to the rest of the world (although Hardwood Records released it in Canada well before it found its way onto record store shelves in the States).
Before delving into the actual content of Hayden’s return to the mainstream that rejected him (or rather, were never fully given the opportunity to absorb him as a result of mass media and popular culture), it’s important to establish what exactly his music is and what it represents. As I mentioned above (and in my previous review of Everything I Long For), Hayden’s sound is a unique sort of an amalgamation of post-punk rock, lo-fi acoustic music and poetic lyricism. A reviewer on Amazon.com referred to his music as ambient grunge, an interesting and somewhat accurate description. For the most part, each of Hayden’s songs is crafted with an acoustic guitar (usually a detuned twelve-string), with only sparse arrangements. There’s really no bass, and drums were an unaffordable luxury up until the major-label bidding war sparked by Neil Young. As far as lyrics go, Hayden is both one of the most brilliant and yet one of the most simplistic poets of the current generation. For the most part, he deals with the simple things in life, small events or chance meetings that few of us give any thought to. Hayden, however, dedicates a tremendous amount of his thought to these subjects, often resulting in a forlorn, desolate sadness about failed chances and what should have been. On the other side of the coin, he also delights in these same simple things, whether it be sitting in front of a television late at night enveloped by the screen’s glow, or sharing greetings at a social gathering. It’s appropriate that Neil Young was the one who discovered him too, as the two share a tremendous amount in common. Both poets of the rock generation, they both rely heavily on the texture of acoustic guitars in the setting of a rock and roll album. Perhaps even more eerie is the resemblance between Young’s hoarse moan and Hayden’s lowest, baritone growl.
Incidentally, though, Skyscraper National Park rarely finds the still-young Hayden using this baritone growl, instead taking on a strained, cracking falsetto throughout much of the record. The lo-fi energy of the album, however remains. While for the most part songs are still structured around Desser and his guitar, they more frequently utilize musical texturing through the presence of understated pianos and fading string or horn sections. The title of the album in and of itself creates a contrast of ideas, an oxymoron of sorts that seems to help establish Hayden’s movement forward as a musician while also paying tribute to what made him the figure that he is. Perhaps he’s toying with the irony behind living in a crowded, concrete city that is part of a country known more for its vast slabs of wilderness. Regardless, Skyscraper National Park, while probably not quite as consistent as Hayden’s debut, marks an impressive step forward as a human being. The melancholic sadness of his music isn’t quite as pervasive as it once was, replaced instead by a playful, almost content young man with a bright future. He has matured both lyrically and musically, learning when restraint can be helpful for the sake of atmosphere and how to get maximum emotion from the music. The buzzing of guitar strings against the guitar fretboard rarely happens here, although the occasional squeak, squeal and shimmer as fingers run up and down the fretboard remain to give us a reminder of Hayden’s lo-fi earnestness.
The faint acoustic guitar of Street Car, heavily filtered in the mixing process, is barely audible, accompanied only by a piano note on each downbeat. The song is moving, drawing the listener in with it’s morose sadness and the hurt in Hayden’s vocals as he laments there’s nothing up there without your love. The full-band, up-tempo performance of Dynamite Walls is a marked contrast to the grim dejection of Street Car. The song conjures beautiful images of a long drive down an empty road with only the open skies in front of you. Hayden sort of mumbles the verses, moving into a higher falsetto for the chorus, where the beautiful instrumentation and soft strumming drive home Hayden’s grim reminder that we may never find the things that we’re looking for. But all the while, through the sparse instrumentation, there remains a faint glimmer of hope.
I Should Have Been Watching You is accompanied by soft drumming and the sound of more than one guitar winding around the sonic spectrum together. Hayden’s vocals are so even and steady that they become almost hypnotic by the end of the song. All In One Move seems, dare I say, upbeat with a jazzy guitar rhythm and Hayden stretching to reach his upper registers. As the song grows, the rest of the band joins in, first drums, then a piano, followed by a second guitar playing a independent riff overtop of the first rhythm guitar. Bass Song returns to the sad lyricism, telling a sombre, chilling and morbid tale of an unsolved murder.
The day after the storm
I didn’t leave the house at all
They assumed from the lack of prints in the snow
That I had been away for some time
But I was upstairs
And I couldn't hear them
With my headphones on, recording a song
They broke my windows
And walked inside, beneath me as I played on
Unaware of what was going on
As my song began to fade
I heard whispering and then I couldn't breath
They were walking up the stairs
Towards me as I looked for something to try and scare them away
And I couldn't find sh*t
So I grabbed my bass guitar by the neck and held it above me
And hid by the top of the stairs and that’s where I was found
Five days after I hit the ground
The song, in typical Hayden fashion is sombre because of his macabre storytelling strength. His chilling account is even more shocking because he is able to create a personality for the victim, making you feel as if you knew him. After the vocals finally fade out, an arrangement of strings fades in and continues telling the sad song without any words necessary.
The same sadness continues in Carried Away in spite of an upbeat-sounding musical arrangement with emphasis placed on each hit of the snare, while Lullaby closes Skyscraper. Much like its namesake, the song goes for mood over all out melody, and as the last note finally fades from the speakers, you’re left with a sinking sense of loss.
Skyscraper National Park is a return to form for Canada’s master of musical poetry. It doesn’t quite measure up to the powerfully grim sound of Everything I Long For, but stands up well on its own. Skyscraper National Park shows tremendous maturity on the part of Hayden himself, evidenced by the quality of the music found within. The record was recorded beautifully, complete with some of the most intensely haunting and evocative arrangements in Hayden’s career. His all-consuming sadness with the intricacies of suburban life have been placed in the background, replaced instead by the philosophical ponderings about life and love as a whole. The strings and spacious instrumentation are absolutely gorgeous, adding texture and depth to Hayden’s normally sparse compositions. The piano flourishes and horns never interfere with the basic human connection, serving to instead coat the raw human emotion into something a little more digestible and understandable for human ears. Hayden's raw and powerful lyricism strike a vein and then milk it dry with the exhausting ponderings of a possessed man.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.