Anybody who hasn’t witnessed a Hamell live performance is missing out on one of music’s real pleasures. With his battered guitar strung at a low register, he sings (and screams) real songs with a passion and humour that’s rare and compelling. Now recording on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe label, this new album conveys much of that wonderful live performance ambience.

Opening with the rampant Don’t Kill, Hamell’s style and character are beautifully showcased. Like DiFranco, he has an ability to write songs that go straight to the heart of the matter, and with a strong sense for a melody. Using God’s message of ‘thou shalt not kill‘, Hamell takes it to a new and more brutal dimension: “I’m God, why don’t you hear me? I’ve been saying the same shit for centuries, You say it’s me you worship, All You Christians, all you Muslims, all you Jews, I’m going to say it one more time, DON’T KILL YOUR NEIGHBOUR, Jesus Christ this shouldn’t be news, Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill, Don’t Kill.” Next up is Halfway which goes for the throat of the media and the personality cult: “So you are on the cover of Rolling Stone, or one of those other corny music magazines, that’s just an excuse to sell fashion or bullshit… So you pucker your mouth and you show lots of thigh, coy celebrity sexy, teasing cleavage. Ass in the air, selling your product…” The song continues and gets more explicit, and it’s great. The pace slackens off with a jagged little ditty called When Destiny Calls before glacial beauty Hail enters with it’s polite guitar refrain in the background. Every one of the sixteen tracks here hits the mark while covering the wide spectrum of personal life experience and views. It’s also Hamell’s best album to-date.

To the uninitiated, this is the Hamell album to start the collecting habit. It’s nicely diverse in pace, hugely accessible and even has DiFranco backing vocals floating around like the lightest, softest confetti. It also has delicious guitar licks, possesses some of the best lyrics heard in 2003, and features vocals that make you sit up and take notice. TOUGH LOVE is essential listening for those lovers of the very finest acoustic rock/folk singer/songwriters, and just about everybody else.

4/5