Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand - Album Review & Gig Gallery

Hamish Hawk

A Firmer Hand

Release Date: 16/08/2024

via So Recordings

*****

Hamish Hawk returned to Leeds on Wednesday evening for an intimate album launch show at The Wardrobe in collaboration with Crash Records. The show takes place only a matter of days before the release of Hamish Hawk's third album “A Firmer Hand”.

I was lucky enough to be sent an advance copy of the album a few weeks ago, and I found myself listening to “A Firmer Hand” almost exclusively.

Photo: James Keane - @jameskeanephoto

Hamish Hawk's last album Scottish Album of the Year nominated “Angel Numbers” was one of my favourite releases of 2023, yet this latest release somehow feels like a jump in quality. With a much more personal approach to songwriting, deviating slightly from the more whimsical, pun-heavy lyricism many would have come to expect from Hamish to something much more self-reflecting, mainly focusing on the complexities of male relationships in his life, covering everything from intimacy, sexuality, family and the music industry.

Photo: James Keane - @jameskeanephoto

The first single to be released from the Album was Big Cat Tattoos, one of my favourites from the record. Hamish had the following to say:

Big Cat Tattoos is just one of the great unsaids that make up the new record, and it's the birthplace of the album's title: A Firmer Hand. Unknowingly I'd been building up an ugly arsenal of great unsaids over the past few years, and the album became a place I could offload them, and with any luck put them to rest. I tried to avoid cleaning things up at the time of writing, I cornered myself into a warts-and-all approach. But don't be fooled, Big Cat Tattoos is all talk. Our hero gets a few barbs in nice and early and lands a couple of clumsy jabs, but in the end, we're witness to nothing more than a petty diatribe. It's embittered, unbecoming and wholly embarrassing. It does have a certain get-up-and-go, though.

Photo: James Keane - @jameskeanephoto

Writing this album, I opened up my closet, and a skeleton came out. The thing that links all of the songs is a sense of the unsaid, whether out of guilt, shame, repression, embarrassment, coyness, whatever it might have been. I realised: I am going to say these things, and not all of them are going to make me look good. The album made so many demands, and I just gave myself over to it.

Once I'd given myself over to the idea, I thought, I have to stick to this. I can’t hide anything from it. I can’t clean it all up for consumption. It felt uncomfortable for me – and that’s exactly how it should feel. That’s a really strong position.

I thought this is the body of the record. The fact that it makes me nervous tells me it was the right thing to do.

Tonight’s show was different to what you may have come to expect from usual record store album launch events, with Hamish and Band first taking to the stage to play tracks from the Upcoming Album, with live debuts of both Autobiography of Spy, and Questionable Hit, and carrying on the set with audience requests which where submitted via social media before the gig, except for "Bakerloo, Unbecoming" which was requested on the night itself.