Songs For Walter – Songs For Walter

Album Review by Gary Kaill | 06 Jan 2016
Album title: Songs For Walter
Artist: Songs For Walter
Label: aA Recordings
Release date: 15 Jan

After years of gracing the various backstreet and basement stages of his hometown, Manchester's Laurie Hulme finally releases his debut album. A hotch-potch of homespun folk and ramshackle acoustic pop, Songs For Walter is the eponymous tribute to the singer's late grandfather. That particular Walter, a key and influential figure for Hulme, is the inspiration for a sidelong look at a life well lived.

From the tenderly picked Stamping on Snails ('I was 99% sure you were dead…') to the electric stomp of Useless, Songs For Walter, much like its faded holiday polaroid packaging, works as a warm and candid recollection of family life and of the complexities of friendship. Plaudits to Hulme for his selflessness and for having the generosity to write from someone else's perspective, and a thumbs up for doing so so tenderly and with such clear-sighted love for his subject. In an age of dead-eyed cynicism, Songs For Walter is, commendably, all heart. 

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