Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
We know what to expect from Richard Hawley by now – lovely old fashioned guitar sounds, unhurried riffs and a laid-back, soothing voice which puts a wall between you and the real world with the first silken syllable.
If ever music embodied that feeling of being at home late with a cuppa on a rainy winter’s night, with traffic swishing past outside and the city’s thousand lights scattered across every wet surface then Richard Hawley is it. I remember the Pogues writing a song after Shane MacGowan left (I think Jem Finer wrote it actually) called Small Hours. It’s not the greatest song they ever recorded, but it was about the comfort and pedestrian, everyday intimacy of finally closing the door on the world at the end of the day. In fact, For Your Lover Give Some Time is a gorgeous take on almost the exact same sentiment, and one of the standout songs on this album.
Almost every song Richard Hawley has ever sung evokes that kind of feeling in me, sometimes so strongly that it overwhelms any other reaction to the music – it’s just nurturing and reassuring, irrespective of the character of the individual songs.
His last couple of albums have been pop albums and no mistake. The swell of strings and easy but unmistakably danceable shuffle of drums have permeated both Lady’s Bridge and Cole’s Corner, and so when I first began to absorb the glacial pace of this album I experienced something of a false start – my expectations were set to a slightly quicker pace and consequently I rather overshot the record on the first couple of listens. This typically well-phrased review on the Daily Growl, however, ensured I went back again.
Slow yourself down to the pace at which Truelove’s Gutter demands that you move, however, and you’ll find this as richly rewarding as any album Hawley has released. It’s gorgeous, intimate and heartfelt, but you yourself really do have to be on the right setting or you’ll shoot right by before you even notice it’s there.
Richard Hawley – Ashes on the Fire
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Richard Hawley – Don’t Get Hung Up in Your Soul
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And a little bit of a bonus for you:
The Pogues – Small Hours
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I don’t really know much about Richard Hawley, although I’ve liked what little I’ve heard. He and Jarvis Cocker recently performed a lovely duet on TV program called The Music Instinct, which is about music and cognition. The show appeared on American public TV, which is always Anglophilic, but I’m not sure if this was originally an American or British production. Anyway, gorgeous.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/video/performance/jarvis-cocker-and-richard-hawley/16/
This album really reminds me of his first album. Slow and measured, it might take a little time like you say, but it’s bloody worth it. Even the 10-minute tracks don’t seem too long. He rules.
Oh, and C&B, that Cocker and Hawley song is lovely. Ta.
Yup, and Lady’s Bridge seemed a little wayward to me – just lacked a little snap, I’d say – but this is really good. I’m glad too, because I am getting sick and tired of reviewing established musicians and having nothing to say but ‘basically, they’re past it’.
I love his stuff though i’m rarely in the mood where i can let myself enjoy to the best. know what i mean? but anyway it’s the kind of thing that makes you feel like your in a film.
oh yeah Matthew my work place now classes song,by toad as entertainment! so will now not let me view it!
bugger.
Entertainment? Christ, that’s a bit of an overstatement!
there’s not many doing what he does, and does so well
it’s not thought to be cool these days to sing out of a place best described as ’sincerity’
that’s what i like about hawley’s stuff i think – it’s just sincere
i can’t get past how brilliant is: ‘don’t get hung up in your soul’ – wonderful
Too many arch and sneering indie kids cowering behind a veil of irony and affectation, I think.