Product Description

Coles Corner, the follow up to previous albums, Late Night Final and Lowedges, was recorded at Yellowarch Studio in Sheffield, singer/songwriter Hawley’s hometown and is a beautiful album, filled with nostalgia, emotion and romance.

The album’s orchestral splendour sits alongside earthy rock and roll with songs that are by turns intimate and soaring. Richard Hawley insists his mind is full only with "confused thoughts and Guinness". But when he sings, he does so in a voice that’s deep and low, and does not lie. His merciful, wise songs tell of the heart’s truths as seen in the dark, revealed by moonlight.

The title track, a string-led, alone-in-a-crowd song, sees Hawley’s narrator walk the city at night and name checks an old meeting place for Sheffield, Coles Corner, on the site where John Lewis now stands. Says Hawley "Sheffield’s couples, lovers, friends, mums and dads or whatever, would meet [there]. I’ve always found it quite a romantic notion – how many kids in Sheffield are knocking about as a result of a meeting at Coles Corner?’ ‘I’ll meet you at Coles Corner…’ People still say it, even though it hasn’t existed for years. It only exists, really, in the ether."

Track Listing

1. Coles Corner
2. Just Like The Rain
3. Hotel Room
4. Darlin' Wait For Me
5. Ocean
6. Born Under A Bad Sign
7. I Sleep Alone
8. Tonight
9. Wading Through The Waters Of My Time
10. Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet
11. Last Orders

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #673 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-05
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
'Coles Corner' is the fourth album from former Longpigs member Richard Hawley. The album sees Hawley build upon the fifties and sixties influenced rock sound that has graced his previous releases, creating his own unique adult contempoary rock sound.

Customer Reviews

50's, Noughties
The 2006 Mercury Music prize went to The Arctic Monkeys. On accepting the award, their spokesman said "someone call the police, Richard Hawley has been robbed". Now bearing in mind that Hawley is a fellow inhabitant of Sheffield ... forgive my ignorance people of Sheffield, but I haven't a clue what they call you... even so I made a mental note. Months before, Verity Sharp had interviewed Hawley on The Culture Show, and I liked what I heard,...well that's not entirely true... I just love Verity Sharp...and she loves Richard Hawley.
So I bought the album.
The morning it dropped on my doormat, I fired up the system, placed it in the CD tray, pressed play and sat back.

The world changed...into Technicolour. The strings that swelled from the speakers could have come from a big old Wurlitzer jukebox from the Fifties. I could have been sitting in an old boozer sipping brown ale in the days before lager was invented. It was uncanny. Hawley's influences are obvious, to my mind he is almost disturbingly like Roy Orbison, especially on track 3, Hotel Room which is achingly beautiful. Born Under a Bad Sign has echoes of Morrissey in his more vulnerable moments. The influences may be obvious, but Hawley's songs are sincere and intensely personal, this is no mere pastiche.
From the semi acoustic guitar, vintage brush drums, lush bass...nothing hurried...everything unfolding at it's own natural pace. We are on a nostalgia trip where strings swell and pedal steel guitars swoon their love to a cold world. But strongest of all are Hawleys tentative gentle vocals, crooning, as if to a lover cuddled up close. Lush. Heartbreaking. Fabulous.

Simply beautiful
Richard Hawley's 4th album is quite probably his best.

The title track is one of the most stunningly beautiful songs I've ever heard. It's lushness is enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Words can't describe how gorgeous this is.

There are many other singer-songwriters out there but it amazes me that Hawley doesn't break into the million-selling market. How people can put up with tiring, yawnsome dullards like Jamie Cullum, Katie Meleau, James Blunt, Daniel Powter etc etc when this man is around is anyone's guess.

Hawley wears his influences on his sleeve and doesn't pretend to be anybody he isn't. Just Like The Rain, Hotel Room, Darlin' Wait For Me could have been lifted off any old 1950's rock 'n' roll record. Don't let that put you off, this is a good thing! Too many times nowadays music artists are styled to do something that they ain't and Hawley's frankness is refreshing.

And of course another of Hawley's talents apart from song-writing is THAT voice. When you hear that somebody's got a "deep, low" voice you expect Louis Armstrong or, horrors of horrors, latter-day Dylan. But, no, Hawley has an incredibly clear and versatile voice. At once powerful and then fragile. A true crooner in every sense of the word.

For all the guitar heads out there, this can be a guitarist's album as well. Hawley plays nearly all of them (6 & 12 string acoustics & electrics, baritone, Spanish and Hawaiian lap steel!)

Buy this album now and try to force it upon as many people as possible!!

God, it's good
I must admit right now. 3 days ago, Richard Hawley could've been Richard Johnson from Surrey for all I knew.

There is nothing, and I mean, nothing, better than discovering a new artist, then wondering where they've been all your life!!!

To say I love this album is an understatement. Richard has the smoothest Edwyn Collins-esque voice I've ever heard...apart from Edwyn of course!!

Yes, I love this album, and the track 'Just Like the Rain' is probably the perfect song for this kind of genre. A Cohen-esqhe strum leads into a Marty Robbins chorus which is magnificent.

Think El Paso done by The Divine Comedy, and you're probably nowhere close.

I'd give it five, but the album drags a bit towards the end. Pity, as Richard is Sooooooooooooooo much more talented than messrs Blunt, Bedingfield, Powter, etc etc. Miles Better.