Hamish Hawk – A Firmer Hand
A Firmer Hand sees Hamish Hawk daringly take a searchlight to the complexities of the relationships with men in his life and, by extension, to the complexities within himself. The result is dazzling
Following 2021’s Heavy Elevator and last year’s Angel Numbers was sure to be no easy feat, but with A Firmer Hand Hamish Hawk has pulled off a hat-trick.
The coyness of the previous albums left by the wayside, A Firmer Hand is utterly steeped in an authenticity and forwardness of the most soul-baring variety. Seamlessly woven throughout each and every track is a sense of heartfelt honesty, first taking the form of a charmingly gentle sincerity in opener Juliet as Epithet. The same honesty, however, morphs into something quite different, changing gear as the vicious directness of Machiavelli’s Room kicks in. This is a song more sexually charged than anything in Hawk’s repertoire so far, and such lyrical composition compounds with discordant minor chords and inescapable pounding beat into a powerful, yet distinctly disquieting song.
Not limited to Machiavelli, mention of popular figures from Kafka to Cooper (Tommy, that is) crop up throughout. As always with Hawk, this album is laden with songs full of reference: literary, lyrical, tongue-in-cheek, cryptic and, of course, musical. Callbacks to the likes of The Smiths, Talking Heads, Franz Ferdinand and more can be heard as Hawk creates an enticingly poetic musical mosaic. Each song with a distinctive energy, yet all with a sharply synchronic cohesion. There is a perfect blend of atmospheric reflections, such as stripped back piano number Christopher St., intermingled with dangerous diatribes and lusty boisterous highs.
Lead single Big Cat Tattoos is one such song – irresistible in its fierce vibrancy, this almost-80s-dance-in-sound anthem exudes a biting wit in its sardonic lambasting of a figure of affected machismo. The songs that follow are enticingly tumultuous, before finally settling into a trepidatious self-acceptance in the closing track, The Hard Won (an intentionally irreverent pun, no doubt). With this track Hawk shifts the focus inward, signalling a coming to terms with the bewildering nature of one’s own existence. It is, in a sense, a coming of age. He finishes with an assertation that there is 'No explanation', yet this feels a comforting statement as the album draws to a close: perhaps an explanation is not always required; perhaps it is enough to simply be.
A Firmer Hand is an album in which Hawk daringly takes a searchlight to the complexities of the relationships with men in his life ('friends, lovers, family, colleagues') and, by extension, to the complexities within himself. The result is dazzling.
Listen to: Juliet as Epithet, Big Cat Tattoos, Nancy Dearest