Darren Hayman - You Will Not Die

Wir widmen uns zum Jahresende hin noch einigen Musikern, deren Output ein steter und scheinbar nie versiegender Fluss ist. 

Kommen wir heute zu Darren Hayman, der seine Fans nahezu jedes Jahr mit neuer Musik beglückt. Belege aus der jüngsten Vergangenheit gefällig? 

2016: „Thankful Villages Volume 1“

2017: „Thankful Villages Volume 2“ und „The Hayman Kupa Band“

2018: „Thankful Villages Volume 3“

2019: „12 Astronauts“

2020: „I Can Travel Through Time“ und „Home Time“

2021: „Music To Watch News By“

Und natürlich kam auch dieses Jahr ein neues Album heraus. Auf „You Will Not Die“ geizt Darren Hayman nicht und bietet mehr als 90 Minuten Musik. Für die 24, größtenteils langsamen und grüblerischen Lieder - darunter das ein oder andere Instrumental - kramte er seine Vintage 70er Jahre Synthesizer heraus und beschäftigt sich thematisch mit Beziehungen aller Art, der Sterblich- und Vergänglichkeit.

So viel Musik braucht Platz und daher ist „You Will Not Die“ als Doppel-CD und Doppel-LP erschienen.

There is still hope to be found in Hayman’s world – on Turn My Grey Tick Blue, he turns his wry observations to the future – and some of the best songs are the ones where dejection and optimism are played off against each other with results that are (characteristically for Hayman) both funny and sad. Girls Who Look Like You is a great example of this. Musically too, there are flourishes that break through the prevailing twilit ambience: the swirl and swell at the end of the beautiful Here’s The Stillness, the trippy space-walk of instrumental Loser Sun or the gorgeously wonky approximation of a fairground in Easter Gold. He’s not averse to trying out unexpected styles either – the rubbery synths of I Am Owned suggest something of the low-key eighties pop ballad.

You Will Not Die is a long album – around the ninety-minute mark – but it never strives for the epic, and it doesn’t need to. Instead, it sees Hayman at his most withdrawn and introspective, uncovering new truths hidden in well-worn themes. This is something to be celebrated: when a songwriter of Hayman’s skill turns the spotlight back on himself – and in doing so, creates a new world in miniature scale – it’s worth taking note. 

(Folk Radio)

 

The highlights really start at track eighteen, with ‘Easter Gold’. A classic 50s doo-wop chord progression played on detuning late 70s synths, making it a perfect candidate for Twin Peaks if the show had been set a decade earlier. Following this is ‘Actually I Still Really Really Miss You’, its title reflective of how heartfelt all these songs are. ‘Holiday Eyes’ triumphs despite Hayman trying to set the record for how many times the word ‘things’ can be used in a pop song. Nicely changing this up to ‘think’ a couple times in the second verse. Starting on a toy music box sound, the synth bass soon kicks in, and along with its strong melody, the tune builds to a shimmering outro. Up next ‘Where Were You’ is simply a great song, slightly wistful. There’s something about the way the sounds play the chords of ‘Adverse Camber’ – unrushed, almost floating – that is very nice. A tune full of pleasant uncertainty. The same can be said about the feel of closer ‘You Were Always Here’, the abrupt slides in the progression making the whole stand out. Moods of optimism and mystery mix with an odd tension pulling at the edges, a strong ending that pulls the whole record together.

(The Quietus)