Elk-Lake Serenade
is the kind of album
Neil Young
wishes he could still make. It's an intimate, heartfelt, and organic record with one foot in the
lo-fi
camp of
Beck
and
Will Oldham
and the other in the classic
rock
sound of
Crosby
,
Dylan
Petty
, and
Young
. Especially
. Despite some outward appearances,
Hayden
isn't slavishly aping
here; it's more like they are dipping their ladles into the same mountain stream. Maybe he is a bit downstream from
, but that's not a bad place to be.
's lyrics are much more personal and clever than
's, anyhow. Whether writing dorky odes to his cat on
"Woody,"
breaking hearts on sad tracks like
"This Summer,"
or sharing ghost stories on
"1939,"
he keeps things pretty simple and true. The sound of the record is also true and arrow straight. Built on acoustic guitars with little splashes of color like handclaps, tooting horn sections, and subtle strings, the record sounds remarkably large in its smallness.
is in fine voice, tender and sweet with a fragile quality. Listen to him caress the lyrics on a slow
ballad
like
"Looking Back to Me"
; he's a
torch
singer at heart. The mostly subdued tempos are very conducive to his late-night feel and never get boring, because he varies them by degrees and includes a couple songs like the loping
"Hollywood Ending"
and the thumping rocker
"My Wife"
to break the melancholic haze and give the album some excitement. Not that one comes to a
record looking for excitement. You come looking for introspective tunes with a fresh sound and unique lyrical bent.
delivers on this expectation in full. It may just be his finest record yet. ~ Tim Sendra