Lady's Bridge (Audio CD)

The easy-listening king of the decade The proudly working class, Sheffield-born, Sheffield-residing Richard Hawley returns with another album of ballads and unashamed romanticism. Lady's Bridge, the follow-up to the Mercury Music Prize nominated Coles Corner, picks up from where the last album left off, featuring a whole set of songs with a timeless, nostalgic feel all held together by Hawley's rich, crooning vocals. This is, almost without exception, a magnificent album from start to finish. It opens particularly well; Valentine and Roll River Roll are both gorgeous string-laden romantic classics, Serious is a country-tinged, skiffle-influenced toe-tapper and Tonight The Streets Are Ours is reminiscent of 1950s reverb-drenched pop magnificence. Richard Hawley wears his influences on his sleeve, whether it be Johnny Cash on the pleasant stroll of a song that is Dark Road or Roy Orbison on, well, pretty much most of this album. Vocally, he is closest to Edwyn Collins but, from time to time, you hear a little bit of Elvis creeping in there as well. The only one negative on this album is that it is one song too long. Although it's quite a good track, the very last song The Sun Refused To Shine really doesn't belong on Lady's Bridge in terms of structure or feel and finishes the album on a low rather than the almost constant high which runs throughout this very fine piece of work. If you enjoyed Coles Corner then you will almost certainly love this album. If you've never heard Coles Corner or, indeed, any Richard Hawley, but love timeless, classic, romantic music - well, this album is for you.

absolutely spell binding been to see him in concert recently and he is absolutely out of this world, i could listen to him forever, voice of an angel and funny too, cant wait to see him again

Boring???!!! Naah. Firstly, can I just address the title of this review. I have taken the time to read through the other reviews that have been left, mostly paying respect to this amazing album. I am however gobsmacked that some people have labelled it 'Boring'. How can an album as varied as this be boring, listen to 'Serious', Tonight The Streets Are Ours' and 'I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me'. Admittedly yes, these are the more vibrant, upbeat tracks but even during more subdued tracks, just the sheer variation on offer prevents this album from sufferring from any sort of monotony. For me Richard Hawley is a relatively new dicovery. Although being a long time fan of The Longpigs and having heard 'Born under a bad sign' when it was released a few years back, loving it but never knowing the artist responsible. I HAD to buy Lady's Bridge after hearing 'Serious'. In the 6 months or so since, I have managed to gather together all of his albums and I have to say, they are all corkers. People have said he's made himself more commercial with this latest offering, I feel that he has just continued to develop and explore the possibilities and range of his influences. And if he gets a few singles charting highly, good on him. It just means that there is more of a possibility of the younger generation hearing some of the finest 'Chill Out' music ever produced. Don't think of this album as a follow on or 'continuation' to Coles Corner, (a tough act to follow by anyones standards). Think of this as evolution. beautiful, soaring, foot tapping, crooning, velvetty(?), at times VERY Deep. And certainly not Boring.

Sheffield Steel wrapped in velvet This is a treat for the ears and the soul. Listening to Richard Hawley's Roy Orbison-caterpulted-into-21st-century-Britain masterpiece, you feel all of life's ups and downs but also a feeling of deep contentment that there are still real people around, with talent, that can make good records. This CD has everything, from Rockabilly, to Country, to crooning, all sung with a huge dollop of humanity from a man who sounds like he's enjoying himself to the max with every chord.

Romanticism Without Sentimentality Hawley is from Sheffield--a different England than what London might tell you--and a true romantic. True where true means real. A guitar that Jarvis Cocker was enough to recruit for Pulp's tours, that you can imagine playing in the local pub, lyrics written in wrinkled napkins next to a pint of brew. I don't that this album is "his best" or "one of his best" but it is wonderful. No song may be a surprise to those who know his work but they'll show their maturity, the clarity of what Hawley likes to play and convey to us. I could even see Orbison or Frank Sinatra nodding if not covering some of these tunes, were they still with us.