Hawley has received an amazing amount of reverential airwave and print publicity in recent months, including a few acoustic radio sessions which have been disappointing. I wonder why…

Opening song ‘Valentine’ possesses a pleasant single chord guitar refrain with several orchestral flourishes, and a pleasant enough vocal. I was reminded of a Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams’ during several passages. Pleasant enough… ‘Roll River Roll’ is a slowly flowing ballad that is plain boring with little to say. ‘Serious’ just sounds plain old and frankly ludicrous with its country-tinged vibe and silly lyrics. Terrible! ‘Tonight The Streets Are Ours’ is shockingly bad and I’m wondering if the guy is trying to compete with Daniel O’Donnell for mediocrity honours. And it gets worse… ‘Lady Solitude’ opens with the memorable lyrics, “Wake in the morning, feeling low/I don’t sleep at night/Oh you’ve broken my heart/Here in the dark moonlight,” and I’m wondering whether I should continue listening… ‘Dark Road’ is faintly more interesting with its darker, country vibe, but then descends into romantic mush with ‘Lady’s Bridge. ‘Our Darkness’ is loaded with numerous instrumental players and is probably the best song on the album. It has an easy, laconic vibe, a pleasant melody, some lovely brass crescendos, but lyrics leave much to be desired. With the amazing strength and variety of singer/songwriters around at the moment, this represents a throwback to more mundane times. I don’t doubt that there’s sincerity here, however, to my ears it’s clothed in musical mediocrity.

2/5