Coles Corner (album)

Coles Corner
Studio album by Richard Hawley
Released 5 September 2005
Recorded Yellow Arch Studios, Sheffield
Genre Chamber pop, art rock
Length 46:09
Label Mute
Producer Richard Hawley, Colin Elliot, Mike Timm
Richard Hawley chronology
Lowedges
(2003)		 Coles Corner
(2005)		 Lady's Bridge
(2007)

Coles Corner is the fourth studio album from English pop/rock musician Richard Hawley, released on 5 September 2005 in the UK and on 6 September 2005 in the US. The title immortalises the legendary Sheffield landmark Coles Corner, a popular meeting place of old and new lovers. The album was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize for best album.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic85/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The Guardian[3]
Mojo[4]
NME7/10[5]
Pitchfork Media8.1/10[6]
PopMatters8/10[7]
Q[8]
Uncut[9]

Critics were almost unanimous in their praise for Coles Corner. AllMusic said that "early rock & roll and rockabilly, country, traces of the vintage-'40s pop, jazz, and even some blues, fall together in a seamless, nearly rapturous whole... Coles Corner is glorious, magical, and utterly lovely in its vision, articulation, and execution".[2] PopMatters stated that "Coles Corner heads full-bore into the vintage sounds of five decades ago... It takes a certain flair for a modern-day artist to pull off such a retro sound, and Hawley's complete lack of irony and bombast on this record makes it work... It's certainly not uncommon for contemporary artists to mine the past and successfully corner the ever-growing adult contemporary market... but none of those youngsters can match the style and grace with which Richard Hawley crafts his music. It's achingly beautiful, disarmingly intimate, simply the best-kept secret in popular music today."[7] The Guardian called the tracks "old-fashioned, lovelorn, immaculately produced songs" and said "[Hawley's] third album follows the template of its predecessors... if there is a difference it's in the richness of the emotions and textures".[3] Mojo called it "a glorious melange of love, loss, regret, homesickness and romance".[4] Pitchfork said "Coles Corner is unapologetically retro to the max but it works... Hawley resides deep inside this material, writing songs with the melodic muscle to stand up next to standards... you realize that Hawley's music can go wherever he wants it to go. He's not stuck in the past. He inhabits his record collection because he likes it there and has a feeling we will too. He's right."[6]

MusicOMH felt that if there were any reservations it was that "many Hawley songs are interchangeable" and "apart from the title track itself - which really is a cracker - there isn't anything in this album we didn't hear in the first two. It's still gorgeous, though."[10]

Legacy

The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[11]

Track listing

All tracks written and composed by Richard Hawley, except where noted.

  1. "Coles Corner" – 4:49
  2. "Just Like the Rain" – 3:17
  3. "Hotel Room" – 3:42
  4. "Darlin' Wait for Me" (Hawley, Shez Sheridan) – 3:53
  5. "The Ocean" – 5:36
  6. "Born Under a Bad Sign" – 3:41
  7. "I Sleep Alone" – 3:44
  8. "Tonight" – 4:32
  9. "(Wading Through) The Waters of My Time" – 3:48
  10. "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?" (traditional; arranged by Hawley) – 4:08
  11. "Last Orders" – 4:59

Singles

In the UK, six singles were released from the album:

Musicians

References

  1. ↑ "Reviews for Cole's Corner by Richard Hawley". Metacritic. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  2. 1 2 Jurek, Thom. "Coles Corner – Richard Hawley". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  3. 1 2 Costa, Maddy (2 September 2005). "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". The Guardian. London, England: Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". Mojo (September 2005). London, England: EMAP. p. 86.
  5. ↑ "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". NME. London, England: IPC Media. 3 September 2005. p. 74.
  6. 1 2 Richardson, Mark (28 September 2005). "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  7. 1 2 Begrand, Adrien (6 September 2005). "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". PopMatters. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  8. ↑ "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". Q (September 2005). London, England: EMAP. p. 119.
  9. ↑ "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". Uncut (October 2005). London, England: IPC Media. p. 110.
  10. ↑ Wright, Helen. "Review: Richard Hawley – Coles Corner". MusicOMH. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  11. ↑ Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 0-7893-2074-6.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.