One of Sheffield's favourite sons, Richard Hawley, has news to brighten up this gloomy time of year for the Steel City. The legendary singer-songwriter has announced that his next studio album, In This City They Call You Love, will be released on 31st May 2024. To accompany the announcement, Hawley has also given us a taste of what to expect with a new single 'Two For His Heels', the first track from this new album.
It comes as a small surprise to anyone familiar with his work that he has had any time at all to write and record anything over the past year, particularly following the profound and ongoing success of the musical 'Standing At The Sky's Edge', which is of course soundtracked and composed by Hawley. Since opening at The Crucible in December 2022, the musical has won two Olivier Awards, one for Original Score/New Orchestration for Richard Hawley and Tom Deering. The success has not slowed as the musical has transferred to London and is currently in the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End until August.
It appears as though the creative process for the musical has informed much of this new album. The new single 'Two For His Heels' is a sparse, atmospheric and cinematic song about a deal that goes wrong, theatrical and story-driven like much of his work before, but with an added layer of gravity brought by it's all-encompassing sound.
The new album looks as though it will continue with the esoteric nature of all of Richard Hawley's past work. The artwork frames Hawley walking through a tunnel with the iconic brutalist Moore Street Substation lit up behind him against a dark night's sky. It's an evocative and emotive choice of cover, perfectly Sheffield as expected whilst also expertly showing the mystery and beauty held within the LP. The album title comes from it's fifth track, 'People', a song written about Sheffield's proud industrial past and it's citizens enduring determination.
Speaking about the new material, Richard Hawley says:
“I’ve made three albums where I had the title before I'd even begun to record, where I had an agenda. One was Truelove’s Gutter. Another was Standing At The Sky's Edge when I wanted to turn everything up and make the music a lot more aggressive, and then this one. I wanted it to be multi-coloured in a way… focusing on the voice and what voices can do together… I deliberately only played a handful of guitar solos to keep it focused on voices, the song and space…”
The album will 12 tracks of "vintage Hawley", full of character, emotion and feeling, delivered in his iconic style, honed over his near-25 years at the top of his game and still sounding better than ever. Hawley brings every aspect of his experience, collaborating with some of the best and brightest that the UK has had to offer over the last two decades, to create another album to cement his place as one of the finest songwriters of his time.
Following the album's release, the singer-songwriter will be heading out on a UK tour in June, tickets are still available here.
The single 'Two For His Heels' is available to stream now here.
The new album In This City They Call You Love is available to pre-order now as well. It will be available on digipack CD, standard black vinyl, limited edition transparent blue vinyl exclusive to HMV and indie stores, and transparent yellow vinyl exclusively available from the official store. You can pre-order and pre-save here.
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