release date: Sep. 5, 2005
format: cd / vinyl (2019 reissue LTD. amber vinyl)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,26]
producer: Richard Hawley, Colin Elliot, Mike Timm
label: Mute Records / Setanta Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Coles Corner" (5 / 5) (live at Glastonbury 2010) - 2. "Just Like the Rain" (4 / 5) - 3. "Hotel Room" (4 / 5) (live in Brussels 2010) - 5. "The Ocean" (5 / 5) - 6. "Born Under a Bad Sign" (4 / 5) - 7. "I Sleep Alone" - 8. "Tonight" (4 / 5) - 11. "Last Orders" (4 / 5)
3rd studio album release by Richard Hawley and the album that really brought him fame and critical acclaim. The album was nominated the 2006 Mercury Music Prize for Best Album (a prize that went to Arctic Monkeys). This was the first album that I ever heard with Hawley, and it completely blew me over. I had no idea that it existed! The style is more or less the same, as his two previous albums, although, I find this more dynamic, or just more well-orchestrated and -produced, and with more... tension. Yes, he still sings his haunting love songs with his crooning dark voice accompanied by his jangle pop surf rock guitar but the songwriting is just sublime. And even though, I'm really really fond of this album, I simply cannot find room for it on this years top 3 list. Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabeté's In the Heart of the Moon tops my list (I can't have any album be rated higher than that), with Sigur Rós and Kent in the next two places with top albums from their hands, but I guarantee that this album is already a modern classic, and I probably listen more to this than any of its contesters.
Highly recommendable.
EDIT Sep. 2019:
I have just received the 2019 reissue on coloured 'amber' ('orange' look) vinyl issued on Setanta Records. Great to own a vinyl copy of this genuine masterpiece.
[ allmusic.com, The Guardian, Mojo, Q Magazine, Uncut 4 / 5 stars ]
