ARTIST: Colin Hay
TITLE: Are You Looking At Me?
LABEL: Compass Records
GENRE: Pop
TIME: 49:07 min
SIZE: 61,3 MB
RIP DATE: Jul-08-2007
RELEASE DATE: Apr-24-2007
WEBSITE: n/a
Track List:
01. Are You Lookin' At Me? 04:12
02. Lose To Win 03:58
03. Here In My Hometown 05:24
04. Up In Smoke 03:37
05. No One Knows 03:58
06. This Time I Got You 04:07
07. Lonely Without You 03:54
08. What Would Bob Do? 04:47
09. Pure Love 03:25
10. Me And My Imaginary Friend 03:03
11. Land Of The Midnight Sun 04:28
12. I Wish I Was Still Drinking 04:14
Release Notes:
Close of day, Los Angeles. Colin Hay emerges from
his basement studio, where the entirety of his new
album Are You Lookin' At Me? was recorded. "I like
working," he says, matter-of-factly. "I love being
in the studio, writing songs, and just being in that
environment - and I enjoy it more and more as I
become more self-reliant in the studio. There's a
lot of messing around with ideas, not being really
sure what the day is going to bring...being on your
own, able to work through the ideas and work the
machines, is quite liberating."
Are You Lookin' at Me? is Colin Hay's first studio
album of new material in over five years. A tuneful,
insightful meditation on life, love, sobriety,
maturity and perseverance, the album finds Hay at
the absolute peak of his craft. As a writer and
vocalist, he has never been more masterful: finding
intriguing new angles on instantly relatable
scenarios, skewering and savoring in equal measure.
His less acclaimed but no less formidable skills as
arranger, engineer and bandleader insure that each
song is supported by evocative musical backdrops
ranging from electronic textures to plaintive
acoustic balladry to classic guitar-driven pop. Are
You Lookin' at Me? is unified by Hay's immediately
identifiable voice, relentless curiosity, wonder and
a decidedly uncluttered sound which has its roots in
Hay's consistently busy tour schedule.
"Since my last album Company of Strangers in 2002,"
Hay explains, "I've been pretty much either on the
road or in the studio...when I'm not on the road,
I'm working on songs and trying to make them as good
as possible. When I was working on these, I had my
road band in mind, and in a way tried to limit the
arrangements to match our live sound." Songs like
the refreshing, buoyant "Lose to Win" and the
disarmingly direct, horn-spiked "Pure Love" reflect
this commitment to, in Hay's words, "avoid
over-recording." Hay also performs regularly as a
solo acoustic artist, weaving new and old songs with
touchingly hilarious tales of his experiences. These
solo tours have left him unafraid to strip his music
to its bare essentials, such as on the bittersweet
"Up In Smoke".
Throughout Are You Lookin' at Me?, Hay's perspective
is one of an observer, an outsider. "A lot of people
feel like outsiders: for me, it's not a problem," he
reflects. "Being born in Scotland and growing up
there for 14 years, I felt a particular way. Then my
family moved to Australia, we were instantly in a
very different place. But I quickly learned to
adapt. When you look closely, you find more
similarities than differences."
Hay first landed on American shores as the frontman
and principal songwriter of the pop sensation Men at
Work. With Hay's wry songs and burnished vocals
leading the way, they were responsible for a series
of massive hits, such as "Down Under," "Who Can It
Be Now?" and "Overkill," that defined pop music of
the early eighties. Men at Work were also one of the
first pop icons of the video era, with Hay's
distinct visage gracing a number of intriguing,
humorous videos that aired endlessly in the early
days of MTV. He stared down at the world from the
most extreme heights of pop stardom, and yet stardom
is not something he yearns for today. "When you have
commercial success, it takes a while for the effects
of that to leave you. But after a while you stop
asking `Is that gonna get on the radio?' over and
over. Now I just want to try to write cool songs
that people will get something out of - the rest
really doesn't matter."
As the eighties gave way to the nineties, Hay
continued to write and perform, parlaying his gifts
as a performer and storyteller into such varied
enterprises as a narrative television special and a
one-man stage show entitled Colin Hay: Man at Work.
His music made the migration from commercial radio
to the world of film and television, gaining
prominent placements in the hit television show
Scrubs and the acclaimed film Garden State. "Having
my music out there like that opened up a new younger
audience to me," Hay explains, "which is fantastic."
The appearance of this new audience is indicative
both of the timeless quality of Hay's craft and also
of his honest, refreshingly slanted perspective -
both of which are readily apparent on Are You
Lookin' at Me?. Musically, what gives the album
coherence is Hay's clear-headed willingness to let
the songs shine through, his warmly conversational
singing, and the steady presence of Hay's wife,
vocalist and songwriter Cecilia Noel, whose strong
but subtle contributions are felt throughout.
"Cecilia has a certain color to her voice," Hay
explains, "and it gives the album continuity."
Nowhere is Hay's gift for touching, relatable
songwriting more immediate than the title track of
Are You Lookin' at Me?, which opens the album. What
at first seems an autobiographical litany unfolds,
over the course of four minutes, into a gripping
reflection on dreams, aging, and maturity. "Yes,"
Hay admits, "it's my story. But it could be anyone's
story." Beginning with a litany of childhood fantasy
(first cowboys, then rock'n'roll), it follows Hay
through the whirlwind of his success and the
subsequent hard truths that emerged because of it.
"Basically, if you hang on to one idea too long, it
will kill you...you can't be a cowboy or a rock star
forever - well, you can, but it's not as glamorous
as people make it out to be...the dream of living
some kind of pastoral existence in whatever way
shape or form it is gets shot down all of the time.
You have to roll with the punches. You have learn to
weave and move out of the way..."
Few have endured and survived the way Hay has, from
an unimaginable pinnacle of success to forging new
roads as a working artist and songsmith. Avoiding
the pitfalls that have claimed so many of his peers
(drugs, depression, delusion), he continues to ply
his craft. The rewards, he knows now, are greater
than something as fleeting as fame and notoriety.
Are You Lookin' at Me? is the next chapter in a
story that is still unfolding - on his terms. "I
feel really great about this record," Hay reflects,
"because I feel close to it. I don't listen to it
and think `Oh, that's not me' or `I'm trying to do
something weird here.' That's what's different...I
have a great band and a great group of people to
work with. It's fun now. But not in a light way -
it's got some weight to it. But," he says smiling,
"it's not like I have to please anybody. Well, maybe
my wife."