With Skyscraper National Park, the quiet ebb and flow of Paul Hayden Desser’s cracked, sad-slow lullabies proved one of last year’s more insidious treats. On record often hushed to the brink of fade, the Canadian’s downbeat allure is set surprisingly aglow, however, before a pocket of punters. Recorded in his Toronto home town during 2002’s North American tour, this two-CD set amply demonstrates the man’s craft, the inherent strength of apparently fragile blooms added extra ballast by painterly shades of guitar, piano and strings and a deadpan humour playfully poking at the likes of Billy Joel. Includes three newly-minted ditties: “Holster”, “I Don’t Think We Should Ever Meet” and “Woody”.
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