Richard Haswell
Safety in Movement
Rhubarb Music RHU026
Released: 2010
In the bedrooms of this green and pleasant land live men who ponder life and record those thoughts on their laptops. Richard Haswell - also of critic's favourite Rhubarb - is one such ponderer and a prolific one at that.
Onwards and upwards as the saying goes. Well maybe not upwards as this is undoubtedly an introspective collection of songs. I don't know how old Mr Haswell is but you get the impression that he has passed the halfway mark and is therefore spending rather more of his time looking backwards than he used to. Certainly there is plenty of sentimentality here especially in the delicate "Magnetic North" and in "Post Goldrush Blues" - the ode to a defunct record company - while the echoes of classic Scottish guitar pop bubble to the surface and add life to the robotic regimentation of songs like "Rings of Saturn".
Similarly dark, "Arise" has the feel of a folk singer who has given up on writing about the Clearances and now spends his time staring out of his bedroom window at the urban emptiness that surrounds his own life. Having said that, one man's melancholy is another man's insight into the human condition. It's almost philosophy by Morrissey.
I can see this album having a resonance for a lot of people in these days of recession and depression but I also have to say that this is something of a soundtrack for the shadows and there is more to life than the shadows.
Bluesbunny
Rating
www.richardhaswell.co.uk
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