[indie-folk, indie-pop] (2020) Darren Hayman - Home Time [FLAC] [DarkAngie]

(2020) Darren Hayman - Home Time

Review:
As prolific as he was over the previous decade, Darren Hayman spent very little of it singing about himself. A range of peculiar and often antiquated themes captured the English songwriter’s imagination and he subsequently devoted entire projects to William Morris’ Socialist chants, open-air swimming pools, American astronauts, and the Essex Witch Trials. Turning the lens inward, Hayman begins the next decade with 2020’s Home Time, an album that is still based around a central concept, but a far more personal one. Recorded at home with a strict, self-imposed track allowance (only 8 tracks per song, all arranged acoustically), Home Time is an album written about breakups, and while it is certainly intimate, it is not overly melancholic or imposingly dour. The playful, earnest indie pop that Hayman has built his career around is in full evidence on upbeat cuts like “I Was Thinking About You” and “I Tried and I Tried and I Failed,” which ring with jaunty mandolin leads and sweet harmonies courtesy of collaborators Hannah Winter and Laura Kovic. His meditations on romantic endings and the emotional trail they’ve cut through his life are largely gentle, as he explores the various aftermaths with a reflective eye rather than an angry or resentful one. Still, there’s a sense of longing in the subtle pop of “The Joint Account” and “Am I the Noise,” a pair of highlights that play like a knowing sigh directed at another of life’s downturns. It’s not an ambitious album, nor one of Hayman’s best, but it’s as cozy and welcoming as its title suggests.

Tracklist:



Media Report:
Genre: indie-folk, indie-pop
Source: CD
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits