a city that had beguiled me since my first time there helping a high school girlfriend move to mcgill. so i closed down that idyllic little refuge in the woods in favour of energy and work. even when my rational mind shouted for everything’s futility, the euphoria of connection and wonder in music never ever ceased.
what was it i loved? what was it that i was good at… even meant to do? i woke up in my country hideout feeling like i was checking out too early, doubling down on darkness instead of clinging to that sliver of light. it was time to reevaluate what i was clinging to. some long nurtured fears become more and more absurd to water and carry. but it started to feel like a hole being dug deep into cold, hard earth. i was, if i’m being honest with myself, hiding out. i’ve always struggled with a grim estimation of things. it was a pretty big change from the 5 years in the country, a place i thought that i’d likely moved for good. Median Age Wasteland strikes a fine balance between nostalgia and a gaining of insight into both the past and present.About 15 months ago i moved to montreal. This can be heard in "Skinny Wolf," a striking portrait of a battered individual whose resilience is found in love. Workman's more subdued moments are welcome too, as they create space for his writing to carry the song even more than usual. Only Workman could write "To Receive," a rollicking, slide guitar-inflected history of the United Church's vote on gay ministers, which features a homophobic "retired pharmaceutical baron." He shifts from story to story with ease, one of the most potent being lead single, "Battlefords," a swift guitar led number that harkens back to his upbringing, featuring the clever lyric, "They say that wealth is revealed in the teeth, that's why we're all wearing braces." The album features country and folk influences, yet also isn't afraid to present grandiose numbers, such as "1983," a track whose passion recalls a Supertramp song. Workman reflects on his '80s upbringing amongst stories more suited to the here and now: the melodic guitars and falsetto of "Lazy" are rooted in a present-day relationship, while "Birds in Train Stations" finds Workman pondering the motivations behind escaping our daily lives on holiday. One of a kind singer-songwriter Hawksley Workman has relocated to Montreal in the years since his last album, 2015's Old Cheetah, teaming up with the Dears' Murray Lightburn on production to create Median Age Wasteland, a record that spins tales across countries and decades.
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