With Guitars Aplenty, Amazing Things Confront the Complexity of Death and Grief
There is something rather poignant and perhaps a bit unsettling about the way in which Darren Hayman and his Electric Guitars’ “Amazing Things” begins.
“Somebody just died / not somebody you’d know / not somebody you’d miss” croons the British singer-songwriter with a quietly ominous cymbal crash and bouncing guitar riff. The opening line of “Nobody You’d Know” is emblematic of a project that confronts death and grief with a complex spectrum of emotions.
This stark confrontation with such lyricism is both brave, especially initially, and rather unexpected without context. But as the former frontman of 90’s band Hefner presents in the plainest terms of a release statement on hefner.com, “A year ago, I lost my friend.”
This album is about that friend who died of cancer.
“When I knew we were going into the final months and that I would be spending some of that time with him, another friend said to me, ‘That will be an honour’; I didn’t understand what they meant until afterwards,” Darren wrote.
Not adorned with the sonic grandeur of strings or the dire sadness of a Nick Cave and Warren Ellis project, Hayman delves into this work, built atop guitar riffs, humming distortion, and a rock ‘n’ roll fervour.
On the title track, the slow wail of guitar accompanied by Hayman’s hopeful yet lamenting vocals recalls Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s strides on ‘Powderfinger’. A poignant moment on the track, Hayman praises “oh, you / you amazing thing” followed by a dynamic solo that drives home the song’s lyrical tension.
A track later, ‘Teenage Guitar’ channels the stiff, fuzzed brevity of Lou Reed’s dynamic punk rock ethos. With its stellar melodic chorus, the song is catapulted by a stinging guitar solo, leaving the listener eagerly bobbing their head in cathartic approval.
Whether it’s with dynamic opening riffs on songs like ‘Something Beautiful’, ‘Do Whatever You Want’, or ‘It’s Gotten Quiet Round Here’, or even the enveloping cloud of distortion on ‘Clean White Page’, the guitar is such a central figure in the storytelling process.
That was quite intentional, as Hayman notes.
“Apart from drums, bass, and vocals, the only instruments on the record are electric guitars,” explains Darren on the release statement. “This is both an homage to my friend’s music taste and another one of the rules or limitations I need to make records. Despite the electric guitar being my main instrument, I often run scared from it and feel that records need many other instruments to create texture. This time, I had to take time and care and find out what guitars can be.”
Amazing Things, in its non-traditional examination of death and grief, never leaves the listener in a stupor. There is a poignancy to its observations that feels tangible and even with a sense of hopeful admiration in the way we can all confront the end more constructively.
This is most evident in the album’s final track, ‘Somebody Good Thinks I’m Good’. Unequivocally, the most forlorn song on the album, Hayman even spins the dire to a rather sanguine optimism: “Somebody kind thinks I’m alright / that’s enough for tonight.”
‘Amazing Things is available on all platforms and can be accessed via the artist’s Linktree. Support the artist on Darren Hayman’s Bandcamp and hefner.com.
Review by Joshua Gutierrez
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