Album Review: Lady’s Bridge - Richard Hawley

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Album Review: Lady’s Bridge - Richard Hawley

A gentle guitar and somber voice is all that’s required to open up an album that will be remembered as a gentle walk down memory lane for anyone who’s loved, lost or longed for it all to come back, it arrives in the form of Lady’s Bridge.
Richard Hawley has created an album that will make Phil Spector proud: lush strings, endless amounts of instruments, and sweeping melodies that bring you on a roller coaster ride of emotion.

In a way Hawley has become a sort of father figure to a lot of new established bands.
At 2006 Mercury Prize, Hawley was nominated for Coles Corner, and when he lost out to the Artic Monkeys, their frontman Alex Turner cheekily but truthfully remarked “Someone call 999, Richard Hawley's been robbed!'.

This is the sort of timeless music that will move people to bare their feelings to their loved one over a bottle of red wine, after a nice romantic dinner. “Valentine” is the opener and Hawley doesn’t waste any time in setting the mood--Burt Bacharach would be proud, and so would Mr. Roy Orbison.

Although some of the most memorable moments are the ballads, Hawley’s roots definitely become evident on the up-beat tracks (by the time he was a teenager he was touring in Germany with his uncle performing in baths and bars), such as “Serious” which has a dash of Carl Perkins mixed with B J Thomas--you’ll see what I mean when you hear it .

You can get lost to this album, wonder the streets at night, swinging around lamp poles, while the sky gently rains on your world, and washes away your troubles onto the sidewalk --all while your listening to “Tonight the Streets Are Ours” on your I-Pod
This song not only has a feeling of nostalgia but it makes it cathartic to be able to look back and realize that things are going to be okay.

I guess in a way it’s a record that won’t be embraced by everyone, but there’s something about it that makes you not want to dismiss it, and I did a test to see what reaction it got: I went around my town center and asked a diverse group of people what they thought of the track “Tonight the Streets Are Ours”, and I didn’t get a negative response, the most thought provoking comment I got was “I wouldn’t buy it, but I respect it”.
That’s one of this album’s biggest advantage’s because when you listen to it once your either going to love it or not understand it, but if you keep listening it will all click one day, I promise.

Written by Fabrizio for UKEvents.net