Hawley recorded his eighth album while recovering from a broken leg and a slipped disc - it's given him plenty of time for bittersweet reflection and epiphany
Like a more agreeable Morrissey, Yorkshire pop philosopher Richard Hawley appeals to our better, more human natures on his delicious eighth album. On the standout track,The World Looks Down, he gently but sadly chides us for our smart phone oblivion; we are all staring at our screens when we should be dreaming about the stars.
Hollow Meadows, named after a village in the Peak District, shimmers into life with the beatific I Still Want You, a torch song that reveals Hawley’s voice is showing age - it cracks and splinters and that baritone takes on an even darker hue. It sure suits him.
It’s a croon (part Orbison, part Cash) that wraps itself beguilingly around Serenade of Blue, which really does belong somewhere in the background in a David Lynch movie. The gnarled writhe of Which Way is less successful. Hawley is at his best when it’s all torch and twang or as with the reverb-drenched Sometimes I Feel, a venture into Northern psychedelia which loses itself in a gorgeous haze of ghostly echoes and effects. Heart of Oak even risks a homage to Bowie's Heroes and carries it off beautifully.
With the voice (and look) of a gilded age of torch singers and burnt-out playboys, Hawley returns with a fine set of languid tunes that summon up both bucolic vistas and lonely city streets at dusk. Hollow Meadows is a sumptuous, spacey trip that flickers with dark truths. If it’s balm for the soul you’re looking for, apply this liberally.
Alan Corr
Richard Hawley plays Vicar Street, Dublin on October 30
