It’s both easy and hard to be a low-key musician. On the face of it, low-key music seems simple to do, no giant orchestration or big solos. But it’s actually quite difficult to make the low-key come off as compelling, to draw the listener in, rather than fade into the background. Hayden of Canada (the lowest-key country out there) does low-key very well on Are We Good.
Obviously not a record if you want to get up & go, instead Good relaxes and accepts, whether happy or sad. Better perhaps is when Hayden utilizes his charm, whether with whistling (“Nothing Wrong”), horns (the preceding “Terry Cloth Blue (Every Single Thing)”), or guest duet vocalist Feist (“On a Beach” – QRO review). Yet there’s also the heartbreaking intimacy of “Window Washer Blues” – though closer “Can’t Happen Now” sounds oddly like a synth-less version of Roxy Music’s “Avalon”…
In these ‘interesting-in-the-Chinese-curse-way’ times, it’s hard to relax and even get anywhere close to low-key. But Hayden shows how to do it with the very good Are We Good.
