Search - Haywood :: We Are Amateurs You and I

We Are Amateurs, You and I is the third and final offering from Haywood, a New York-based group that imploded before this last batch of songs was released. Although the CD is rich with stripped-bare emotions and padded with soaring vocal harmonies, it's hard to make a plea for the band's continuation after listening to this disc, which never establishes itself far enough outside of its influences. Haywood starts out midtempo, crouching close to Replacements/Pavement territory, and then slams on the brakes, sounding like a gloomy Modest Mouse/Built to Spill combo. By the latter half of We Are Amateurs, Haywood is really in a downward spiral, wallowing in an indie-rock no man's land and creating sad, dreamy melodies that sound like the millions of other bleeding-heart indie bands crying for attention. Unfortunately for Haywood, this disc is a schizophrenic span of emotions that's left well enough alone, unless you're really craving more tortured-soul emo sung with a postbreakdown shakiness. --Jennifer Maerz