The Rockfeedback A-Z of Underrated Records: Hefner - The Fidelity Wars
By: Matt Tomiak
The Rockfeedback A-Z of Underrated Records is an ever expanding guide to albums, beloved by our writers if not the world at large, that we think you should know about. Records on the list are present in virtue of fulfilling a number of deliberately vague criteria. These can range from the LPs being unfairly slated at the time despite being fantastic, their being lost classics authored by underground artists that have failed to reach the audience they deserve, or true gems unjustly overshadowed by the huge commercial success of an artists' other work. It is our hope that the list will expand into being an exciting guide to collecting life changing music that might not feature in your usual 'The Greatest 100 Records You Must Listen to BEFORE YOU DIE' run downs, and that it will be enjoyed with all the enthusiasm and good natured humour with which it is intended.
Ok, so the imminent ten year anniversary of The Fidelity Wars in summer 2009 might not be marked with a bells-and-whistles bumper re-issue (although it did get a low-key extended b-sides n'demos edition makeover last year.) But the second album by Brentwood lo-fi folk trio Hefner must surely rank amongst the most obscenely neglected British records of the 1990s.
Offering John Peel-endorsed indie cred alongside dark, yet accessible crunchy three minute pop gems, singer Darren Hayman's emotive Estuary holler was never given a finer platform than these eleven tales of unrequited metropolitan affection, veering between raucous Billy Bragg style Essex-sexual pontificating, unexpurgated Jarvis Cocker lasciviousness and achingly sincere tales of desire and isolation ion the capital at the close of the 20th century.
"How can she love me if she doesn't even love the cinema that I love?" pleads Hayman in the swooning power-pop gust of opener 'Hymn for the Cigarettes', before casting himself as the jilted lover on the vulnerable lament to another vice 'Hymn for the Alcohol': "Start me on the whisky - I know whisky is his drink, you never drank it with me, but now you drink it with him."
'I Stole A Bride' chronicles the harrowing minutiae of a romantic affair ("Why must she taunt me so? She still has his scent, she still wears the bastard's clothes") whilst the chorus of sweet duet 'Don't Flake Out On Me' acknowledges "we will never lose the feeling that our hearts could be unbroken."
As these sentiments testify, Cupid's arrow might not always fly straight, but more often than not The Fidelity Wars hits the bullseye.