Elk-Lake Serenade
Badman, 2004
rating: 2.5/5
reviewer: wolfman


Hayden wears his heart on his sleeve. After six albums, Toronto's Hayden Desser embarks on yet another journey of sadness, despair, and desolation. His newest melancholic offer is titled Elk-Lake Serenade, a sultry, intimate affair filled with solemn moments through and through. Hayden's humanity is at the forefront of the record, yet again, repeatedly focusing on his bad luck with relationships. In fact, Hayden's downhearted emotion has abolished his musical direction on occasions in the past. Elk-Lake Serenade is no exception to that rule. While Elk-Lake Serenade certainly paves an acceptable musical direction, it is completely flooded by Hayden's brooding emotions. The acoustic guitar lends a hand to his wretchedness at times but fails to comfortably accompany his heartfelt sentiments. Harmonica, trumpet, piano, pedal steel, synthesizers, and a five-piece orchestra add the appropriate balance that Hayden's performance lacks but fails to render this record free from his inhospitable trenches. Although the record is saved from complete disaster with its musical accompaniments (along with its standout track "Hollywood Ending"), Elk-Lake Serenade is outrageously lonely and cumbersome. It lacks any intensity that was shown on tracks like "Dynamite Walls" from Skyscraper National Park. In the end, Elk-Lake Serenade makes you want to hug Hayden tightly and tell him that everything is going to be alright, at which point you reach for Skyscraper National Park.

1. Wide Eyes
2. Home by Saturday
3. Woody
4. This Summer
5. Hollywood Ending
6. Robbed Blind
7. Killbear
8. Through the Rats
9. Starting Over
10. Don't Get Down
11. Roll Down That Wave
12. My Wife
13. 1939
14. Elk-Lake Serenade
15. Looking Back to Me