Toronto's Hayden Desser is a potent singer/songwriter. His demure baritone can be the perfect accomplice for a gray day or it can block out the sun, stanching a cheerful mood. 1996's Everything I Long For and 1998's The Closer I Get are volatile collections of snarling lo-fi folk-rock, often overwhelming sad or bitter, while 2001's Skyscraper National Park saw a subdued, significantly matured Hayden, one who seemed more comfortable in his own skin but was no less emotionally ponderous. His fourth LP, Elk-Lake Serenade is his most low-key release yet: Here, Hayden seems to have recoiled still further into introversion, and as a result, has mollified some of the sentimental TNT displayed on recent songs such as Skyscraper's "Dynamite Walls".
Elk-Lake relies mainly on acoustic guitar and trembling vocals. Periodic string and harmonica swells, a few instances of electric guitar, and the infrequent appearance of drums punctuate the sparse arrangements, but much of the record is vast and open, yet wrapped in solitude. Working with such a minimal palette, Hayden's arrangements seem less sophisticated and less effective here than they have on his previous releases.
The towering, string-heavy "Wide Eyes" is a misleading opener. Short and stylistically different than much of the rest of the album, it features Hayden in top vocal form, gently wrapping his words around a meandering piano melody. It serves as a nice preamble for the more representative "Home by Saturday". Here, Hayden presents hushed, slightly slurred vocals over a simplistic arrangement of acoustic guitar, plodding drums and twangy pedal steel.
From this point, much of Elk-Lake acquiesces as Hayden delves into saturnine, sawdust-covered folk songs that are almost too quiet. Either you'll be enthralled by his underplayed persona or drift aimlessly and inattentively away from his soporific compositions. "This Summer" and "Robbed Blind" are pleasant lullabies, but suffer from the opaqueness of Hayden's voice. With a clearer, more gripping vocal (something Hayden proves himself capable of achieving on "Woody"), those tracks would be captivating instead of frustratingly retiring.
What made Skyscraper National Park so affecting was the way its lo-fi boundaries often felt cleverly feigned to allow Hayden's laments to spill over into sincere emotional outpouring. Elk-Lake Serenade offers little of that suspense, and as such, it's too easy to tune out. Elk-Lake is a benign, restful listen, showing a once-unwieldy, always-vibrant creative mind having found a peaceful medium. While it's easy to appreciate the man's development, this blunted songwriting is somewhat less resonant-- and seems somehow less Hayden.
