Since transitioning from a roving Britpop guitarist (first with Longpigs, later with Pulp) into a singer-songwriter, Sheffield's Richard Hawley has been content to play the long game. That is, if he's playing the game at all. Much like his output, about which it's basically impossible to write without conjuring at least one of Roy Orbison, Lee Hazlewood, or Elvis Presley, his decade-long career has served as a testament to an almost perverse disinterest in the modern day. In Hawley's world, rock stars still wear Brylcreem, sunglasses, cigarettes, and reverb, and the twang of a Gretsch is music's lingua franca. If he were remotely interested in winning a mainstream audience, you'd have a hard time proving it.
And yet, despite six albums chronicling his single-minded devotion to a very specific patch of vintage rock, one could make the argument that Hawley's career is still on the ascent. Whether by design or coincidence, his music has recently begun peppering the ad breaks of British television-- it appears what was too somber for radio listeners is ideal for consumers. Likewise, Hawley's last record, Truelove's Gutter, was a career highlight that saw him twist longer, darker shapes out of his considerable songwriting craft. Some critics called it the best album of his career.
Billed as a collection of songs 'inspired by the ocean', False Lights From the Land is a short but intriguing EP which furthers the notion that Hawley's currently making some of his most beguiling work. Listeners will recognize opener "Remorse Code" as one of the aforementioned epics from Truelove's Gutter; clocking in at just under 10 minutes and featuring some of Hawley's finest guitar work, it gets deserved headline status here. The next two tracks are obscure covers, both of which feature vocal contributions from folk duo and Hawley tour alums, the Smoke Fairies.
"Shallow Brown" is an old sea shanty whose a cappella performance, somewhere between folk and gospel, renders it one of the most haunting things Hawley has ever made. On the Hughie Jones cover "The Ellan Vannin Tragedy", meanwhile, Hawley plays Gordon Lightfoot. (With that voice, he can.) With its sleepy piano tinkles and gently stinging guitars, doo-wop lullaby and new song "There's a Storm a Comin'" closes out the EP by returning us to Hawley's house style, but not without reminding us that he can still wring magic out of that familiar old formula. If he were a marathon runner, this is where he'd be hitting his stride.
