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Avg: 4.0 (63 ratings)
- Date Released: January 1, 2007
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Label: Fat Possum Records
The sublime sound of sadness.
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We Say...
Generations of songwriters have coped with misery, some have even drawn inspiration from it, but few wallow in it quite as enthusiastically as Hayden. He inhabits it body and soul, treating it as a place from which there’s no escape — and since he’s stuck there, he might as well relax and enjoy himself a little. The characters on his fifth studio album lack both hope and options: in “The Hardest Part,” a woman in an unhappy relationship has no respite except fantasy, while the naïve lovers in “The Van Song” shuttle around on public transportation, their scant comfort in each other leeched away by the glazed abjection of the passengers around them. In “Damn This Feeling,” anger and hurt connect a jilted boyfriend to the girl that got away: “I think I’m healing/ Damn this feeling,” he sings.
Musically, Hayden’s progressed: he switches from acoustic guitar to piano, leaning closer to pop than ever before. “Did I Wake Up Beside You?” feels like home-schooled Burt Bacharach, and “More Than Alive” channels ’70s singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. But Hayden would be well-served by grafting a little of the former’s bouncy melodicism, or the latter’s droll humor. His scratchy mumble undersells his best lines, and his refusal to deliver his characters from their predicaments or offer them chances at redemption becomes claustrophobic. Only the title track really breathes, perking up to a rhythm almost worthy of a dance floor and pushing misery, however briefly, to the sidelines. -
They Say...
Fans of Iron & Wine didn't have to wait long before Sam Beam's hushed, lo-fi recordings gave way to the Technicolor lushness of Woman King and The Shepherd's Dog. Hayden, on the other hand, has spent more than a decade creating somber, subdued music, which makes In Field & Town such a startlingly pleasant change. Hayden hasn't done away with the intimacy of his previous work, nor does the singer's seventh studio album change his melancholic nature. For all intents and purposes, In Field & Town paints the same picture as Elk-Lake Serenade and The Closer I Get, but it does so with brighter colors and wider brush strokes, capturing the slow demise of a relationship with a mix of pianos, trumpets, guitars, vibraphones, harmonica, and percussion. It's always autumn or winter in Hayden's world, and these 11 tracks bypass the springlike feel of puppy love, focusing instead on the unraveling of hope and adoration. "Take it easy," he cautions on the opening title track, a song whose chugging bass loop and percussion clash with the foreboding lyrics. "I see us around this uptight town," it continues, "with emptiness just weighing us down." That weight gets heavier as the album progresses, and Hayden begins lamenting his lover's estrangement just three songs later with "Worthy of Your Esteem." But while that track is certainly heartbroken, it's also orchestrated with lighthearted synths, harmonies, and knotted guitar solos. Songs like "Did I Wake Up Beside You" and "Where and When" continue the light-and-dark contrast, with Hayden's vocals spinning solemn stories over riffs that bounce and shine in a dusty, Americana-styled way. There are detours from that pattern -- most notably the elegiac portrayal of a security guard who excels at origami ("Lonely Security Guard") -- but In Field & Town is mostly concerned with Hayden's heartbreak, and it details those emotions with variety and taste.
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| 01. |  |
In Field & Town |
3:49 |
|
| 02. | |
More Than Alive |
2:59 |
|
| 03. | |
The Van Song |
2:45 |
|
| 04. | |
Worthy of Your Esteem |
3:26 |
|
| 05. | |
Damn This Feeling |
3:19 |
|
| 06. | |
Did I Wake Up Beside You? |
5:02 |
|
| 07. | |
Weight of the World |
1:41 |
|
| 08. | |
Where and When |
3:15 |
|
| 09. | |
Lonely Security Guard |
4:26 |
|
| 10. | |
The Hardest Part |
2:21 |
|
| 11. | |
Barely Friends |
3:08 |
|
| 12. | |
Disappear
|
2:34 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 38:45 Total Length
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Credits
- Hayden Desser - Bass // Hayden Desser - Guitar // Hayden Desser - Harmonica // Hayden Desser - Piano // Hayden Desser - Drums // Hayden Desser - Keyboards // Hayden Desser - Vocals // Hayden Desser - Bells // Hayden Desser - Producer // Hayden Desser - Engineer // Hayden Desser - Art Direction // Hayden Desser - Mixing // Hayden Desser - Photography // Hayden Desser - Music Box // Howie Beck - Drums // Noah Mintz - Mastering // Yael Staav - Handclapping // Yael Staav - Shaker // Paul Aucoin - Vibraphone // Dale Murray - Pedal Steel // Christie Greyerbiehl - Handclapping // Christie Greyerbiehl - Art Direction // Christie Greyerbiehl - Photography // Shaun Brodie - Trumpet // Loel Campbell - Drums // Holly Throsby - Vocals
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