Sheffield singer steeled for battle
RICHARD HAWLEY, Sheffield’s prince of gritty melancholia, is angry. After the ten years of his solo career, and eight critically acclaimed albums, he feels the victories of the working class struggle have been eroded. His ire, forged in the political fires of the 1980s, is boiling, and shows in the songs on his 2012 release, Standing on the Sky’s Edge.
On this collection, Hawley has dispensed with the orchestral richness of his previous releases, opting for a tight rock line-up and spacey, grinding electronic sounds. It is a different world to the moody yet gentle True Love’s Gutter, his previous album.
