(Parlophone)The last time we heard from Richard Hawley he was flirting with psych-rock. Three years later,he’s returned to what he does best - reflecting on Sheffield and life’s vicissitudes in a voice that suggests smoking does beget its rewards. Hollow Meadows, written while Hawley was at domestic recovering from a slipped disc and a broken leg, and finds the crooner at his most affecting and fragile. “Sorry I’ve been absent so long,” begins the opener, I Still Want You, or while Nothing Like a Friend evokes a vulnerable Elvis. The centrepiece,however, is the wistful What Love Means, or wherein Hawley recalls his daughter leaving domestic, his baritone conveying both parental pride and pain.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com