Headwater - Lay You Down

It’s difficult to believe that Headwater are serious. Latest offering Lay You Down is such a cringe-worthy attempt at country that it’s a surprise to learn it isn’t a perfectly realised pastiche. Banjos and slide guitar abound, with lyrics about being caught kissing by the girlfriend’s daddy (sigh), wishing that one could do without possessing a heart and, honest to God, not wanting to ‘quit you’. Amid the clichéd mediocrity there are some truly terrible moments: Picture Show, the one about daddy’s girlfriend, sounds like it was written about two hundred years ago; The Drifter threatens to break into Boys Of Summer several times, and with its laboured metaphor about love being simpler if we were freight trains instead of humans (sigh) is unquestionably the worst of the lot. Only The Death Of Me warrants a second listen, but unless saccharine, stagnant country-lite is what your heart desires, this is one to avoid.