I’m a bit of an old romantic at heart and I’m a sucker for a rich
baritone voice, a lovelorn melancholy ballad and an orchestral
arrangement.

My favourite singers include Scott Walker, Roy Orbison
and, of course, Sheffield’s son of sadness, Richard Hawley.
 
For his latest single, Hawley has made a brave choice, but he’s also
written one of his finest songs ever. For Your Lover Give Some Time is
so good that it sounds like a standard from the ’50s or ’60s. It could
have been sung by Matt Monro or Sinatra.
 
Over a simple, sparse arrangement of just acoustic guitar, cello and
violin, Hawley croons this gorgeous love song that he wrote especially
for his wife, Helen. When he promises to drink a little less, give up
cigarettes and come home early every now and then, it makes me weak at the
knees.

You can listen to it on Spotify:  http://tinyurl.com/ksrhbc

In an article in the Sheffield Telegraph, Hawley said: “I wrote it for my wife.

“It’s about the two of us getting older together.

“I’ve always thought the strongest marriages are the ones where you can have a laugh at yourself, and we can certainly do that.
 
“She’s normally quite taciturn about my music. I could have good reviews piled from floor to ceiling but I’d still have to wash the pots. That’s how it should be, it keeps you grounded. When she heard  this one she said ‘that’s really nice’ which in her terms is a bit
like getting honours from the Pope!
 
“I wrote it on the spot one day and it’s the best song I’ve ever written. 

“I think it’s a fairly honest and slightly wry look at lovers. It’s a warning not to take things for granted – now and again you should buy a bunch of flowers randomly. Don’t let the calendar push your buttons. Don’t buy flowers just on Valentine’s Day.
 
“It’s just being honest about the way love changes. As time goes by you become more aware of the other’s weaknesses but because you love them, it’s OK.”
 
The single precedes Hawley’s sixth album, Truelove’s Gutter, which is
out on September 21. It’s rumoured to be his most experimental and
darkest work yet, with lengthy orchestral passages and some strange
sounds thrown into the mix. 

In a press statement, Hawley said: “I use a load of odd sounds on this
album that are not heard on many other records. The sounds in my head
on a lot of the tracks – I didn’t even know what they were called! I
wanted it to be a listening experience from start to finish, where you
couldn’t just pause it and go off and watch Coronation Street or
whatever. Sonically, it flows. It’s not jumping all over the place. It
just has a mood that goes through the whole thing.”
 
In a Twitter conversation I had with The Guardian’s rock critic,
Alexis Petridis, he told me it was Hawley’s best work to date.
 
I’m already putting money on it winning next year’s Mercury Music
Prize – and I haven’t even heard it yet.
 
I have, however, heard a live version of another track from the new
album – Ashes On The Fire. It’s available on the CD of Hawley’s
legendary gig at the Devil’s Arse caves in the Peak District, last
Christmas.

It’s a lovely, country-tinged ballad about a man who late
one night leaves a love letter for his woman, only to find the
following morning that’s she’s burnt it on the fire. Oooh, I can feel
myself going weak at the knees again.
 
Highlights of the Devil’s Arse gig are available on Youtube. Here’s
Hawley’s take on Presley’s Devil In Disguise.

See what he did there?
 

 

Yes, I know it’s the summer and I should be out enjoying the sunshine,
but to be honest I feel that my time is best spent alone in my flat,
listening to some seriously dark new music offerings.
 
You should be thankful – it saves you the effort and means you can go
to the park and do all those things that ‘normal’ people do in August
like having a picnic or sunbathing, safe in the knowledge that I’ve
found you some great new music to get you through the long, cold
winter ahead.  So, over the next few days, I’ll be posting details of
some of my fave new tunes up on Say It With Garage Flowers.
 
OK, so I admit I have made a sole concession to the hot weather by
listening to the album Summer of Hate by deliriously, scuzzy, fuzzy,
f***ed up, lo-fi indie-rock duo Crocodiles. Hailing from San Diego,
they sound and look like The Jesus and Mary Chain with their cool
shades, big hair, drum machine, feedback, droney guitars and
death-obsessed lyrics.
 
Their recent single I Wanna Kill is one of the best things I’ve heard
all year – a deliriously dumb, druggy pop tune that mixes the sound of
Phil Spector (on a track called I Wanna Kill, that is somewhat ironic,
don’t you think?) with Psychocandy/Darklands-era Mary Chain.

Just as you’re thinking it can’t get any better, they thrown in a
cheap, tinny organ solo that could have been half-inched from some
long-lost ’60s pop song – simply brilliant. It make you want to grab a
girl, get high and drive an open-top car down the freeway and off a
cliff, while listening to the Shangri-Las on the tape deck. Yep – it’s
that cool.
 
So, before you head out to the park, go and listen to Crocodiles. And
make it snappy.
 
Sorry.