Regular fans of Richard Hawley, the easy listening crooner, should be wary of his Standing at the Sky's Edge album. However I expect this album of heavy psychedelic trippy rock (don't you just love that cover?) will have won Hawley many new fans and the less sensitive of his existing fans would have nevertheless grown appreciative of this temporary transformation, it being underpinned fundamentally by typically excellent songs albeit in an unfamiliar setting.
Guitar is my first love... I'd done the orchestral thing pretty much... enough to warrant a big change for me.
For this outing, his seventh, the guitars are turned up to 11 and the drums and bass pound away providing a tremendous wall of sound, and the celebrated Hawley voice is distorted and mixed down low sounding like Jim Morrison particularly on the slow paced title track. Aside from the Doors, think Hawkwind, Neil Young (with Crazy Horse of course), Jimi Hendrix, Stone Roses, Ride, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, or any other number of shoe-gazing guitar bands of the 90s.
Songs like the 7 minute opener She Brings the Sunlight with it's sustained power chords and distorted electric guitar solos are indicative of this new towering sound.
Obvious single Leave Your Body Behind You with it's descending bass line would make a great Bond theme:
Child of Eden your time is short
You can't leave with more than you've brought
Love given lightly can never be owned
A thing we feel but can never hold
You leave your body behind you
When you leave this place
You leave your body behind you
And you make a space
However it's not all monumental rock and there are a couple of more typical gentle ballads mid album in Seek It and Don't Stare at the Sun although the latter also ends with a searing guitar solo.
A departure then for Hawley
, but a very successful one leading to a hugely powerful album that I think will stand the test of time. Take it in the car on a long drive and play it loud!
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1. Richard Hawley - Standing at the Sky's Edge
2. The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers
3. Tim Buckley - Happy Sad
4. Gong - The Best Of
5. Nick Cave - The Lyre of Orpheus
6. Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues
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