To get Britain you probably need to understand the people’s love of an underdog story. The roots of it might come from all different places, but neverthless seeing the rank outsider pull it off against the odds is the kind of thing that still gets the blood pumping across old Albion.
Hamish Hawk doesn’t quite fit that profile, but seven or eight years of almost completely unacknowledged slog meant the Scot had the lowest of profiles until 2021’s Heavy Elevator, a release which won The Skinny’s Best Scottish Album award and took him overground enough to be able to record it’s follow up in for real surroundings.
Hawk’s music is a knowing, cerebral brand of pop which is now transcending it’s own awkwardness – Heavy Elevator‘s best song was entitled ‘The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973’ – and for the first time promising the vaguest possibility of success. It’s a wish fulfillment explored on Angel Numbers‘ big hitting rocker Think of Us Kissing, itself a first of it’s kind in his canon, as also are two fine collaborations, one with Anna B. Savage (Frontman) and the other Samantha Crain (Rest & Veneers).
Written in lockdown at the same time as Heavy Elevator‘s batch of material, on tracks like the opener Once Upon An Acid Glance and Money there’s a subtle difference in quality this time which is as indefinable as it’s obvious. Call it luck, call it mojo, call it finally knowing you’re on the right path, Hamish Hawk may not be an underdog for much longer.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 