Artist News CMU Approved Releases

Approved: Hamish Hawk

By | Published on Tuesday 14 September 2021

Hamish Hawk

Hamish Hawk’s songs are an incredible balancing act: often humorous but frequently deadly serious; old fashioned in approach yet utterly contemporary in execution; light of touch one moment, furiously intense the next. On top of this, Hawk’s lyrics are all crafted into shiny, sharp tools. And yet, he delivers it every track like he’s forgotten he is spinning any plates at all.

His third album, ‘Heavy Elevator’ – out this week – is preceded by the singles ‘Calls To Tiree’‘Caterpillar’ and ‘The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973’. Each is an astonishing piece of rock music that feels thrillingly new and like an old classic at the same time. With his lyrics, Hawk paints vivid pictures that transport you straight into his world.

“‘Heavy Elevator’ reads like my diary”, he says. “It’s just about all in there, and it goes way back. The teary-eyed losing your mum in the supermarket stuff. The awkward teenage thing. The lost twenty-something. The chance encounters, the half-remembered conversations, the witching hour panics, the hostile takeovers”.

“There is more of me in it than any album I’ve written previously”, he adds. “It describes the feeling of reaching the heights you promised yourself, replaced all too often by the feeling that you’re sinking. ‘Heavy Elevator’ sounded about right”.

Watch the video for ‘The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973’ here:

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