Playlouder - Music is the Network

I can’t claim to know much about the late lamented Hefner, but this compilation CD of EPs by former leading man Darren Haymen speaks pretty highly for them. The four Eps were recorded with minimal instrumentation during his four British holidays between 2005 and 2007 and finished off in his home studio They are all collected here with a short unreleased tune and three holiday related covers.

Soaked through with nostalgic charm, these songs will quickly strike a chord with listeners of a certain age who holidayed during the dying years of the great British holiday; spending fortnights at crumby resorts, dodgy caravans and by naff seaside piers. But these were places with inherent charm and their sense of faded beauty is captured here, along with Hayman’s own feelings of personal nostalgia and meditations on growing older. It’s a celebration of times past, alongside the fears and apprehensions of what the future may hold.

The whole set has a wonderful feeling of intimacy about it. It’s very personal, but many of its sentiments,but very accessible. It’s an album for those who are passing, or are already beyond their twenties and are forced to face the fact that not only are they not as young as they once were, but also that the world they grew up in no longer exists. A sentiment that the Luddite strop, 8 Bit World, captures perfectly with its passionate celebration of old Walkmans and Commodore 64s.

The sound shifts between Eps, with the first and third being the most low-fi and therefore the most intimate. The covers fit in surprisingly well although as a collection it didn’t really need extending. The intent was probably to make the collection worthwhile for fans who bought the original Eps, but it is does diminish the effect of the final tracks, which feel a like they’re covering what’s already gone before.

But that aside, this is a special and touching collection, one that conjures up many long lost memories seems sure to reward repeated listening.