This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“I don’t want to stay in love,” claims Hefner singer-songwriter Darren Hayman minutes into his British indie pop-rock trio’s sophomore CD The Fidelity Wars. He’s lying — either to us or himself.
Truth is, love is all Hayman is after — whether or not he’s not desperately chasing after every woman who catches his fancy. If that’s the battle at the heart of Fidelity Wars, these insistent guitar-pop nuggets are like Hayman’s dispatches from the front lines: Clever, well-crafted stories of runaway brides, gap-toothed women and clandestine affairs, set down in bittersweet rhymes and delivered in the aching, fragile voice of a serial romantic who’s finally figured out that it’s “just wishful thinking that all this hard drinking might lure you back.” To put it another way: He can’t live with ’em — and he can’t live without ’em.
