Hayes - Eleven

This is one of the best indie-rock CDs I have listened to this year. A great CD filled with talent and charisma, why aren't these guys signed yet? That may however be a good thing as the large machine may try and put their "sounds like" stamp on Hayes and force them into sounding like everyone else. With a few hints of hearing other bands sounds, I am afraid they would try and shove this music into one of their holes, and it may get lost in obscurity that way. This young band has already had the distinction of being the sole unsigned act to get their tune "Hussy" placed on the Tommy Hilfiger/ Demodaze promo CD.

This way, true music fans can still find Hayes, buy the CD and whatever else because they like the music, not because they are "Told to". I really like the vocals style of Aaron Smart, he has a unique quality to his voice that adds something special to the fresh alt-pop sound of the band. A truly full bodied sound that should even be able to win over the biggest cynic of music listener. A great aural treat that only at times begins to fall into the trap of sounding like so many others today, and hey, that's what happens when you get bombarded by the sounds on the radio, you get INFLUENCED, right ? 

Jesse Kramer's skins as well as the guitar work of Aaron Smart, the bassline of Sean Wilson and the keys and harmonies of Kelly Finnigan make this as full bodied a sound as your morning cup of "joe" is to your palate. The material brings out the best in this young band and the experience is enjoyable. Hayes does fall short on "complete" originality at times, but it is hard to find a band being played on modern rock radio today that HAS that complete package. The inspirations of Hayes seem to draw more on the influences from some of the great real "rock" acts of the late 80s and early 90s than the generic sound of today.

Is this a completely divine recording, no, however it is mostly inspired rather than simply drafted and derived. The sound is crisp and clean, the energy is high and the song selection makes this one of the most pleasurable indie-rock CDs "so far" of 2004. In today's music world, my hat is off to any group that can go even slightly across the grain of the norm and add some originality, and Hayes seems to put their best foot forward with Eleven. Yeah, there are a couple tunes that are almost formatted to the modern sound, however, the likes of "Asinamaha", "Anyone", "Breakout" and the acoustic well written love-loss gem "Royal Flush" completely redeem the sound from the mundane. 

  ( 4.5 Stars out of 6 )

Hayes Anyone real audio stream  Click Here

For Windows Media Player   Click Here