REVIEW: Hefner, Breaking God's Heart (Too Pure/Beggars Banquet)
- Niles Baranowski
The name is Hefner, as in Hugh, Playboy magazine and all things silicone. It's an odd image for a Scottish band that maintains a working relationship with Belle and Sebastian and advises its listeners to "buy more Beach Boys records." Surprisingly though, their full-length debut, Breaking God's Heart manages to mix both sex and jangle pop into an addictive and dynamic first effort.
While it is probably true that you can't throw a lump of haggis in Scotland without hitting a fairly promising guitar pop band, lead singer Darren Hayman's songs stand out from the cuddly, coy music made by many of his compatriots. There is a rough sense of real sadness here, a slight twang to "Love Inside the Stud Farm" and even a feeling of accelerating disintegration as "The Sweetness Lies Within" draws to a close. Fighting sentimentality at every turn, even the most lovey-dovey of the ten tracks-"A Hymn for the Postal Service" - is written to an expatriate pen pal who "let time slip through her skinny, skinny fingers."
The album's standout cut is "The Librarian," a Neil Young-damaged lament about a patron who checks out smart-looking books to seduce the title character and fulfill the fantasy inside his head. He fails, of course, and the scenario is touching and incredibly funny at the same time ("He would never kiss her eyelids," goes the song's mournful final line, repeated many times. I'm sorry, man.). The mix of emotions in Hayman's voice is as heady as a second trip through puberty.
There are other great moments, too, like the bass-driven bravado of "God Is On My Side" and "Stud Farm"'s dejected chorus, but Breaking is about more than the sum of its parts. Unlike most of Scotland's single-oriented popsters, the album is complete and rounded in both its emotional and musical aspects. It isn't perfect, but it's whole and charming even in its imperfections. Sexuality comes through in both the lyrics and the music, making for a visceral blend of pop music. Less pastoral than Belle and Sebastian, able to look women in the eye better than Teenage Fanclub, Hefner may be Scotland's great white hope for twee-free music and sexually sane songwriting.
