Day 0963 - Coles Corner

Richard Hawley “Coles Corner” (2005)

Hawley had played in a couple of bands Treebound Story and Longpigs.  Following the breakup of the latter band, Hawley split his time between playing as a touring guitarist for Pulp and as a session musician.  Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey heard some of Hawley’s solo demos and encouraged him to do something with them.

He recorded his first album in bits and bobs, often using leftover studio time from other recording gigs.   The album was well received, and Hawley was up and running.

This album, like Hawley’s previous release “Lowedges” references a location in his native Sheffield for the title.  Coles Corner apparently being a spot for courting lovers to meet.  That reference seems appropriate with the collection of gentle, atmospheric tracks, and Hawley holding a bunch of flowers on the cover.

I was turned onto Hawley’s music by a friend in Leeds who played me his song “Tonight the Streets are Ours” and this album follows a similar vibe; 1950s balladry styles with the vocals and guitar drenched in reverb.  Strings back selected tracks and this, combined with the overall sound and Hawley’s deep croon brings Scott Walker’s early material to mind.   There’s more of a country lilt to a couple of songs including “Just Like the Rain” “(Wading Through) the Waters of My Time”, but much of it is lush chamber-pop and torch songs.

I like this album and Hawley’s sound in general, but I couldn’t claim that every song stuck indelibly in my mind.

The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize but lost out to Arctic Monkeys.

Day 0929 - White Blood Cells

The White Stripes “White Blood Cells” (2001)

For some reason I’ve always kicked against the White Stripes.  I think in part it was that they were so hyped when they first came over here, like some kind of ‘second coming of rock’.  Partly too it was this vibe I got that Jack White was trying just a bit too hard to be this “back to basics no frills rock dude who eschews bass (how dare he) to have his two-piece rock band”.   The cynical 90s teen in me balked at these things.

On reflection though, and setting aside all of that, they are just a good band.   White’s high strong voice is distinctive and the music (though borrowing very heavily from blues and 70s garage rock) is catchy yet punchy.

The album is a nice concise 40-odd minutes despite being 16 tracks long.  That’s also something that I usually like, an album that doesn’t muck around and with songs that don’t overstay their welcome, so again it was a bit foolish of me to cut off my nose to spite my ears (so to speak).  Opener “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” is propelled by Meg’s simple but effective drumming in a nice slow lope which is contrasted with the following track “Hotel Yorba” with its speedy acoustic guitar and almost rockabilly feel.

“Fell in Love with a Girl” is the obvious catchy rock hit that everyone knows, and I certainly don’t dislike it, even after the saturation play it got back in the day.   “We’re Going to be Friends” has a kind of naïve cuteness to it which the band were presumably courting with their peppermint stripe motif and story that they were brother and sister (they were actually husband and wife with Jack Gillis having taken his wife Meg White’s surname).

Rock, blues and country mix in a catchy package.  I’m still not convinced at the band’s divinity, but I can admit that they’ve made some pretty good music over their career.