Ten albums deep,
Richard Hawley is practically his own genre, one steeped in the bittersweet romance and pub atmospheres of his hometown of Sheffield, England. It's a vibe he's explicitly conjured throughout his career and one he imbues with a cinematic poetry on 2024's
In This City They Call You Love. Produced by
Hawley with longtime collaborators
Colin Elliot and
Mark Sheridan, the album teeters eloquently between introspective folk, twangy roots pop, and bashing psych-rockabilly numbers. Musically, the album is a nice balance of the sounds and influences he's pursued throughout his career. We get
Roy Orbison's stardust majesty on "Prism in Jeans" and "Hear That Whistle Blow," while "Heavy Rain" and "I'll Never Get Over You" have the intimate singer/songwriter poignancy of
Richard Thompson. There are even a few sonically vibrant rockers here, including "Deep Space," where he evokes his early alt-rock roots as a member of
Pulp and the
Longpigs. That track also reveals the underlying existential threads running through many of his songs. A sci-fi rock & roll anthem for the planet, it finds him pleading for both solace and an end to environmental destruction. He sings "Well we dream of living on other worlds/We're a strung-out wing on a broken bird/We need space/Deep space." Then, on "Have Love," he invokes
the Beatles, singing "You gotta have love, if you want to get love/You gotta give love, love, love, love, love." With
In This City They Call You Love,
Hawley has crafted yet another indelible ode to his hometown, an album of rock mantras that express universal truths, no matter where you live. ~ Matt Collar
![Let It Bleed [50th Anniversary Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0018771858416_p0_v3_s90x140.jpg "Let It Bleed [50th Anniversary Edition]")
![Pulp Fiction [Music from the Motion Picture]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0008811110314_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Pulp Fiction [Music from the Motion Picture]")
![Priscilla [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0018771218814_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Priscilla [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]")
![The Best of the Animals [LP]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0018771432418_p0_v3_s90x140.jpg "The Best of the Animals [LP]")
![Scott Pilgrim vs. The World [Score] [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0018771876519_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World [Score] [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]")
