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Song of the day – 161: Darren Hayman

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Down the Kelvin Grove street market yesterday, I was chatting to the folk on the ukulele stall, seriously thinking about buying one. They’ve got such a beautiful sound, the ones with proper acoustic bodies, and – crucially – they’re easier to play than guitars. I only require one for texture, fill in the background, make my spoken word a fraction more palatable for those who require such things to be more palatable (laptop musicians, normally).

Someone from the UK sent me the new album from Darren Hayman, probably because I wrote about his previous one for The Guardian. It’s called Essex Arms, and it’s all about love and loss and regret, and the knock-on effect of having grown up among the new towns of Essex, and features ukuleles and impassioned singing and singing bass and the odd clatter of drums and brass and Scrabble references and comic book references, and so… well, isn’t most of life about finding commonality in unlikely places?

The fellow sang with Hefner, and he often lends support to my beloved Wave Pictures.

That isn’t the reason I love his music (very belatedly, it must be said). I love it for its own sake. I think it’s very moving, evocative, melodic… oh come on. Quit asking me to justify myself already. Just go have a listen.

The above video isn’t taken from Essex Arms. It’s the title track from his previous album, Pram Town, the one I wrote about for The Guardian. I choose what’s my Song Of The Day, understand, not some record release schedule. It’s a little early to know if this one will resonate with myself and my wife (who also grew up in Essex). Signs are very good, though.

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