The track “Apologise” begins “I’m sorry about the decorating …“. I hear you brother. Darren Hayman, the former indie rocker with London-based Hefner (John Peel favourite it says here), is settling down to middle age and facing the big changes, like cutting down on the booze and getting a shed (Neil Young was wrong – a man needs a shed first and foremost). His painfully honest urban storytelling chronicles the dreary minutia of modern British life and tell tales of a multitude of topsy-turvy relationships and infatuations – a revolving door policy seems to have been in effect. I might have a few years on him though, and my mind turns to memories of Pete Shelley, John Otway, and Wreckless Eric in the whining nasal vocal delivery and spartan DIY sound of the late 70′s. That sound is art school poppy folk-punk, with Hayman demonstrating his recent conversion to bluegrass with ukulele, violin and mandolin decoration featuring to good effect to perk up songs such as “Elizabeth Duke”, “The Wrong Thing” and “Crocodile” (as in the designer polo shirt design). There’s also the odd bit of tinny Stylophone (I only wrote that so a search on TLOBF for Rolf Harris would get at least one hit) and nice horns flesh out “Apologise”.

Hayman has a nice eye for observation, usually hitting the mark when getting witty with it, but sometimes can be borderline twee – to add Jilted John to the list of my mental images. There’s sing-along (“Nothing In The Letter”, “Lets Go Stealing” – dealing with plagiarism rather than an anarchic call to arms), and the driving beat of “Straight Faced Tracy” is a great acoustic punk ditty. Similarly bouncy “Higgins vs Reardon” conceals a tale of marital strife beginning with a wedding day punch-up and alludes to emotional breakdown on the scale of Alex Higgins world title winning blubbing back in 1982 (on having his sprog brought out to hug). I remember it well (when there were still plenty of characters in sport – don’t get me started …).

There are great arrangements and a clutch of addictively catchy tunes here, but for some the album may be better sampled in chunks interspersed with other offerings (shuffle!). A complete listen can detract from the novelty (meant in a good way) sound and the limited vocal range can loose its appeal when not concentrating to get the most from the wonderful lyrics. If you weren’t around in 1978, then some of the New Wave was a bit like this, but without the ukulele, and some more gobbing. A lot of fun if you don’t take it too seriously.
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Links
Darren Hayman [official site] [myspace]