I'm siting here listening to a promotional copy of the new Colin Hay (formerly known as the guy from the '80s Australian sort-of-new-wave Top 40 sensation Men At Work) album, and it occurred to me just how little he seems to care about appealing to a new (that is, younger) audience. It's this very devil-may-care approach that has won Hay an audience among those young music fans he doesn't pander to -- most notably the ubiquitous and irritating Zach Braff, who put Hay's wonderful "I Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" on the Garden State soundtrack.
It's true that much of Hay's new album suffers from excessively glossy production and lyrics that lean a little too much toward trite and feel-good, but it's hard not to admire Hay's fearlessness as he does just what it is he wants to do, sales be damned. Anyone who remembers Bryan Adams' cringe-inducing attempt to be edgy and sexy and "IT" back in the late '90s knows just how embarrassingly wrong that Canuck got it. Sometimes -- pretty much all the time -- it actually IS better to fade out slowly, and, if it's your inclination, in a way that comes off as moderately cheesy. Because in the end, it's all super subjective anyway.