A brilliant album I keep going back to again and again
Objectively, I think that ELK-LAKE SERENADE may be his best album, but subjectively I value it and this one about equally. "Criminally" and "under appreciated" are three words that occur repeatedly in talking about some of the finer unknown musicians active today, but they fit Hayden Desser better than most. While the songs on ELK-LAKE SERENADE are a bit more polished, all rough edges smoothed away, the lyrics are so spectacular that I have to give the nod to that one. Lyrically EVERYTHING I LONG FOR isn't quite as good, but I must confess that I love the rough-hewn quality of the songs. His music can be alternatively described as lo-fi or folk-rock (though it is really more like rock-folk), but mainly what it is, is good.
This is an album filled with one gem of a song after another. I especially love the way that he will go from soft and melodic to rough, raw, and loud. The technique was, of course, first perfected by the Pixies, but Hayden exploits it better than almost anyone since. No song uses this technique better than "When This is Over," a nightmarish song about being strapped in a car with his younger brother because his mother is apparently off with a boyfriend, a song that I hope to god is purely fictional. The verses are soft and almost whispered, but the chorus raucous and despairing and very, very loud. (The song also illustrates what I was talking about before, that this album is stunning musically, but the lyrics are not as strong as what you would see on ELK-LAKE SERENADE, where each song's lyrics read like great poetry. ) Another great song that blends softer segments with rough, gruff bits is "Skates. " Likewise, the musically marvelous "Bad As They Seem" that starts off the album is gorgeous to listen to, but the lyrics are simply not as strong as almost any song on ELK-LAKE SERENADE. That being said, I have to say that I musically enjoy almost all of the songs on EVERYTHING I LONG FOR more than almost all of the songs on ELK-LAKE SERENADE. The other side of the coin, however, is that the lyrics of many of the songs on the album aren't up to the quality of the music, whereas on ELK-LAKE have the enjoyment of the album are the brilliant lyrics. Still, "We Don't Mind," "Stem," and all of the aforementioned songs are all marvelous to hear.
One reviewer predicts that Hayden Desser will be the new Bruce Springsteen. I'm less sanguine. I suspect that he will always fall into the category of the brilliant but neglected artist. I think he will continue to produce wonderful albums, be ignored by most, and appreciated by a few. But I would strongly recommend anyone reading this becoming one of the few. Hayden is a truly wonderful performer who deserves as much of an audience as he can get. If you don't know his music, this is definitely one of the two albums you should try first, the other being ELK-LAKE SERENADE. If you like both of those and feel you need more, try the wonderful live album LIVE AT CONVOCATION HALL and the studio album SKYSCRAPER NATIONAL PARK. .
Soundtrack to my high school years
The lyrics are honest and funny and his voice is one of a kind. From start to finish, this entire album is amazing.
If you only buy one Hayden album, this has got to be it. But you won't. Once you buy this one, you're gonna go out and buy them all. I know it.
On par with BEST CD EVER!!!
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's "Nebraska" album is most highly acclaimed due to his amazing ability to tell a moving story in each song on the album. "Story-songs" are the hardest to create and pull off. Years from now, Hayden's album "Everything I long for" will be highly acclaimed by musicians and songwriters worldwide (Hayden will be the next BOSS). Hayden has the miraculous ability to make you laugh and cry in each song. He captures a universe of mood and feeling from beginning to end. The pace of his music is magical!!! If you are going to buy one Hayden album, this is the one that i would recommend! (If i were to be stranded on an island with 3 Cds, this would be one of them. ) Buy it, shut your eyes, listen, and you will cry and laugh. .
One of my very favorite albums
It will make you ache, it will make you miss times of your life you can never go back to, it will accent your lonelinesses and remind you of your sorrows. This album is depressing, melancholy, and almost criplingly sad.
IT'S GREAT!
This album is the epitomy of where I was hoping modern-day folk music would head toward: this album is as sincere and as truly folk as the mournful songs of Mississippi John Hurt or the Carter Family. Back then, people sang about what was really happening to them, to their world, to where they lived. If they'd had microwaves and pizza and cable TV and coffee shops, they would have sung about them, too.
That's what a lot of modern day folk musicians don't get. They treat folk as if it was stuck in a bubble. They imitate something real, and what comes out is something phony, because what they're singing about isn't really their world.
Not so with Hayden.
Not so with "Everything I Long For. "
This album recognizes its time and its place. It draws as much from indie rock and grunge as it does from folk, and the result is something completely original. Low-fi folk grunge? Grunge-folk?
It's Hayden.
Like Daniel Johnston, Hayden is never afraid to be painfully honest, even if it makes him look cowardly or pathetic, and it pays off by mostly just making him incredibly sympathetic. He sings about liking a girl he sees in a coffee shop, and having his friend give the girl his number while he himself hides in the bathroom. He sings about a weekend spent with a girl at his parents' house and how he wishes she would got there with him again, now that they're all grown up. He sings about lying to ditch out on a crappy job, and about working in a sporting goods store. His songs are depressing, yet songs like "My Parents' House" and "We Don't Mind" also have hope and private happinesses hidden deep inside them, and warm the sad and chilling soul of this album.
The songs are quiet, for the most part, and haunting, but on occassion it feels as if too much quiet suffering is being left unexpressed, and Hayden has to scream out, and let it out, and let you know. Those are some of the BEST parts. He sings one song from the perspective of child-murderer Susan Smith's little son, as the car he's strapped in rolls into a pond--the child wonders what he did wrong, tries to help his brother, and screams and screams and screams and screams as the water fills the car.
My gosh, it's good stuff.
If you're the sort who occasionally feels better after listening to depressing music, then this is the album for you. If you like the blues not for their mind-numbing repetition but for the idea that singing out one's pain is cathartic and healing, then buy this CD. If you like albums that feel like a friend you love confiding his deepest secrets because you're his closest pal and he's at the end of his rope, then buy this album. If you like music, if you like music that makes you feel something, if you like music that makes you feel something meaningful, then you really do need to buy this album.
And Hayden's "Moving Careful" e. p. is great as well.
A Must Buy CD
To be honest, after getting it, I didn't listen to it that often. I bought this CD soon after it was released based on his single "Bad As They Seem" which was frequently played on MTV in the 90's (back when they played videos). I put it back on my shelf.
A few years later, I saw Hayden as the opening act at a concert I went to. I remembered his single and was looking forward to hearing him. Unfortunately, the drunk and rather obnoxious crowd didn't seem to care for his music (or any music for that matter) and he seemed to cut his set short. He didn't even play "Bad As They Seem", concentrating on his faster songs.
But it was months after seeing him in concert that I finally gave the CD another listen. And this time, it blew me away.
"Bad As They Seem" is still a great song, but there are others on the CD that are even stronger.
"In September" is just a fantastic song. Angry, loud, yet incredibly catchy that you will find yourself singing to yourself for weeks after hearing it.
"My Parent's House" is the total opposite end of the spectrum, musicwise. Just vocals and a piano and it is beautifully done.
Then you have "When It's Over". How to describe this one? The song is about the Susan Smith tragedy, where the mother put her kids in a car and drowned them in a lake. The song is written from the perspective of the kids as the car is rolling into the water. I don't know what is more shocking, the subject matter, or the fact that it is just an incredible song. Alternately sad, with the child begging forgiveness from the mother, saying they will change, to the explosive chorus. Very tough stuff. Change the lyrics, and this would have been a hit song. But, it is worth picking up the CD to hear.
While not all the tracks on the CD are great, these four alone make this a must buy CD.
You can see a complete list of all Hayden discography, or go back to the Hayden tabs
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