 The
Haywards
"(Scene Missing)" CDR
Self-released
Genres: indie rock, folk rock, lo-fi
May 3 - 9 2004 |
There's no question that David Enright, The Haywards'
sole member, has a sincere melodic talent. His
previous work with Deltoro and Fudgie and Fufu shows an amazing gift at creating unusual, inventive melodies with seemingly
no effort at all. Deltoro's work, especially, was simply
soaking in minor key hooks and unusual concepts.
Now that I've allowed (Scene Missing) to soak in, I'm seeing
many similarities here with Enright's previous work. A
lo-fi spirit pervades this album, with low production values
and many hometaper concepts. The melodic aspect of the release is
clearly its highlight; in these twelve songs, there are more than
enough hooks to go around - and they are often quite original and
unconventional.
"Deaf Ears" attracted me right away; it's a distorted
recording, with crashing cymbals interfering with the tape's sonic
capacity quite a bit - but that's all part of the allure. In the
latter parts of the disc, The Haywards' sound becomes a bit
more downtrodden. "I Didn't Want To Owe You" kicks
this off, combining Enright's hushed vocals with a wonderful
acoustic guitar plucking background. It is folk-pop basically,
though a bit more abrasive. "United We're Falling,"
meanwhile, is
absolute bliss - its relatively simple melody is made perfect by way
of a gritty, imperfect song atmosphere. Wow.
I recommend this disc to anyone with a taste for underground,
unconventional indie rock. (Scene Missing) may very well
never become boring.
87%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 12 tracks, distributed by the
band, released 2003] |
