Richard Hawley - Down In The Woods (10" vinyl)

At my other job (yup, the payola from biggin’ up the latest smash releases don’t fund my Greek yoghurt obsession) I work with a guy called Richard Hawley, the polar opposite of his namesake, a clean cut, businessman type. It just seems so wrong when people mention his name. The real Richard Hawley, however, has put me in a right conundrum. After seeing him live in concert a couple of years ago I whined that he was in danger of turning in to a one-dimensional, one-paced Roy Orbison impersonator.

He’s possibly been thinking the same as his new album has several bursts of noisy psychedelic rock which I’m not sure about either. He can’t win with me it seems. However, there’s been loads of plaudits elsewhere, particularly from 6Music who blast this single out every half hour. It’s a grimy, full-paced churning slab of guitar pop that recalls both Oasis’s ‘The Hindu Times’ and Weller’s ‘Changing Man’ in its descending Beatles-esque chord pattern but is much better than either.

I’m not totally struck on it until about half way through where Hawley howls ‘I luuuuuve you’ sounding, in a wierd twist of reverse influence, like Alex Turner as guitars go completely mental beneath. On the flip we get a previously unreleased slice of atmospheric stuff with Hawley murmuring evocatively under reverbed steel guitar and lightly brushed drums. This seems to be part of a Hawley ‘singles club’ thing so presumably there will be more at some point.