We Love The City

'Hefner don't really tread any ground on We Love The City that they hadn't already walked on with The Fidelity Wars, and that's not a bad thing at all. The album is more of the same, albeit quite excellent, studies of modern life and love for which Darren Hayman is known. In general, the album is a bit less personal than The Fidelity Wars, which means there's less of Hayman's inspired emotional wailings. Previous albums saw his songs building to almost impossibly brittle emotional releases. Don't get the wrong impression with the track titles; We Love the City, The Greater London Radio, and The Day That Thatcher Dies deal mostly in elliptical metaphors, and the songs' title themes are points of departure for more relationship ruminations. The Day That Thatcher Dies is a cruel but hilarious and quite amazing little song. It brings to mind fond memories of the Smiths' Panic. Both songs reel against failing institutions and both end in chants that cheer death. The album does see the band taking wordplay to some truly grand highs. On many tracks, they are aided by backup vocals from Amelia Fletcher, of Marine Research, Heavenly, and Talulah Gosh fame. Hayman and Fletcher both frequently implement child-like inflection, and when they harmonize and trade lead vocals on songs like Hold Me Closer it's quite charming. Every song is some kind of intensely interesting pop gem. Good Fruit might be the finest moment on an album which overflows with great moments. This limited edition release of the album includes two MPEG music videos that play on a home computer.'~ Tim DiGravina, All Music Guide