- Audio CD (10 Feb 2003)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Setanta
- ASIN: B00006JS6I
- Other Editions: Audio CD
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 6,113 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
Jubilee Offer: Patriot Classics for £2.50 |
Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Run For Me |
| 2. Darlin' |
| 3. Oh My Love |
| 4. The Only Road |
| 5. On The Ledge |
| 6. You Don't Miss Your Water (Till Your River Runs Dry) |
| 7. The Motorcycle Song |
| 8. It's Over Love |
| 9. I'm On Nights |
| 10. Danny |
| 11. The Nights Are Made For Us |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Lowedges is Richard Hawley's third album. Neither of its predecessors caused riots in record stores, but pretty much everyone who has paid attention to British pop music in the last decade has heard Richard Hawley. As a session guitarist for Pulp, Robbie Williams, Beth Orton and others, Hawley commands the airwaves to a degree that any similar singer-songwriter would kill for. It can't be easy though to live with the irony that the work that appears under his own name is his least known and by some distance his best.
Lowedges sees Hawley sticking to the template he established on his two previous solo albums: knelling, tuneful ballads are built around an acoustic guitar and sung with a guttural croon that pitches somewhere between Edwyn Collins and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon. Like Leonard Cohen and Lee Hazlewood, Hawley revels in melancholy. Tracks such as "On the Ledge" and "You Don't Miss Your Water (Till Your River Runs Dry)" are confections of the most sumptuous misery. --Andrew Mueller
Review
I rarely listen to an album once and fall immediately in love with it but that's what happened when I heard Richard Hawley's first solo album. So it was with trepidation that I listened to Lowedges; I was dubious that anything could match his previous effort Late Night Final.
It begins with indie-sounding drums that are true to Hawley's roots; he was formerly a member of indie-heads The Longpigs. His distinctive voice resonates like polished grit over a combination of searing strings, hawaiian lap steels, mellotrons and even enchanted lyres. The depth and testosterone of his vocals also stop his sentimental lyrics from sounding cloying.
All the tracks are driven by strong melodies and are mainly at a mid-tempo pace that keeps the album moving along nicely, until you get to the fourth track that is. There is only one thing wrong with "The Only Road"; it is too bloody good and I can't get past the track asIhave to keep playing it again and again. Despite it being the longest on the album, (almost 6 minutes), I just wish it would never end. With an enchanting melody and chords that sit alongside luscious lyrics, strong images are conjured up: "I water flowers in the rain, I dance beneath your silver flames". I'm not entirely sure what he's really going on about here but I'm so blissed out by this point I hardly care. Just about anyone who has a heart will identify with the pain and suffering of love that Hawley is referencing but despite being "crippled by the sound of love" the sado-masochist pleads "please keep me in your heart".
However do get past this track as although for me it doesn't get any better, there are still plenty more gems to be had such as the catchy "The Motorcycle Song" and the instrumental "Danny".
Lowedges (an area of his native Sheffield) doesn't break any new ground or push any musical boundaries but this is melodic songwriting at its best and a pleasure to listen to so keep 'em coming Richard. After all, when you get it so right why change a thing? --Niky Daley
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Richard Hawley, the occasional guitarist with Pulp, returns with his follow to Late Night Final, in superb style.
What a songrwriter we have on our hands. Forget, modernism, Don't ask Richard to push back the boundaries of music, just sit back and let each and every one of these classic love songs wash over you.
If you've ever loved and lost, this will be sweet honey to your beaten ears. From the opening chords of the first track to the closing beats of the final line, every word is soothing, every note, carefully chosen to take the listener into Richards' oh so mellow world.
For the unititiated, this is a collection of beautiful ballads wrapped in beautiful music with a wonderful vocalist.
One of the albums of the year and possibly his best to date.
A masterpiece.
What a songrwriter we have on our hands. Forget, modernism, Don't ask Richard to push back the boundaries of music, just sit back and let each and every one of these classic love songs wash over you.
If you've ever loved and lost, this will be sweet honey to your beaten ears. From the opening chords of the first track to the closing beats of the final line, every word is soothing, every note, carefully chosen to take the listener into Richards' oh so mellow world.
For the unititiated, this is a collection of beautiful ballads wrapped in beautiful music with a wonderful vocalist.
One of the albums of the year and possibly his best to date.
A masterpiece.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
After buying Coles Corner,(a fantastic album by the way)I thought I'd give this one a bash and wasn't disappointed. Lowedges is a more intimate record without the strings, but still full of beautifully crafted songs.Even though Mr Hawley is Country,Rock n Roll influenced,I still think he's got his own sound, like Brian Setzer has his own Rockabilly sound. Buy and Judge for yourself.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The ads say this album is “massively awaited”. An understatement I’m sure for all the Richard Hawley fans out there who can’t get enough of this mean, moody and magnificent singer-songwriter. This new collection continues to showcase Hawley’s luxurious croon in classic rock n roll ballad settings familiar to those happy owners of his previous offerings (one full length album, Late Night Final, and the eponymous debut mini album) but with ever greater depth and coherence than before. This makes it sound retro, and it is, but it’s also timeless and just plain lovely. You’ll hear words like brooding, haunting, lilting and such like applied to it, no doubt, but that’s because Lowedges is all these, and that’s why I use them myself below.
If you’re not familiar with his work consider yourself severely chastised and get with the programme. Fans of Scott Walker, recent Nick Lowe, and Morrissey and Edwyn Collins at their most croonsome should enjoy this CD, plus devotees of instrumental duo Santo and Johnny will recognise their influence in the lilting guitar lines. The magnificent opening track, ‘Run For Me’ is a chugging, rumbling, brooding, soaring, and yet intimate epic. Next up is Darlin’ which is little more than Hawley’s honeyed tonsils drawling out the word “Darlin” over a pristinely simple and ghostly slide guitar. If you don’t like either of these two tracks then begone oaf, and don’t bother with the rest of the CD because it’s too good for the likes of you. The rest of us can just drift off into a reverie of timeless tunes that sound like underwater lullabies sung by a lovelorn, leather jacketed, golden throated romantic as he stands beside his silhouetted motorcycle on a twilit shore.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
absolutely brilliant !!!
Just discovered this guy and his music by browsing around amazon's music pages and can only endorse everything all the other reviews have said. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2008 by V. Hubbert
Can this fellow make a bad record?
Richard Hawley has become one of my favourite artists. I bought first Coles Corner, then the other three. Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2007 by Enrique Ovidio Carro Rey
Richard Hawley - what a find!
I heard a track from Mr. Hawley recently and just knew I would like his stuff! This album is just so easy to listen to - it feels like you have listened to it before right from... Read more
Published on 29 July 2007 by HH
Listen to the music, not the hype
Despite having spent a good part of my life in Sheffield and absolutely loving the place, I detest Pulp. There, I said it. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2006 by Danny Sigma
High points and low edges
"Lowedges" was another triumph for Richard Hawley. Although it sadly only sold about 5 copies.
The sound is slightly bigger in places here than on "Late Night Final. Read more
The sound is slightly bigger in places here than on "Late Night Final. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2006 by Merry Terry
A real 5 star essential album
I was originally put off this album by comparisons made to Scott Walker, Roy Orbison and Leonard Cohen. I don't know, they're just not my kind of artists. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2005
Essential
There's no way round it - if you have a heart and live in the 21st century and care for music and love and how the two swing and depend on each other so much then you simply have... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2003 by "frankconnell"
The neon hotel sign shimmers through the window...
I waited with eager anticipation for this masterwork...and what a grand and gracious exercise in beauty and twangy charm it is. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2003 by Dubash
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