Coles Corner continues to capture not just a love for Sheffield, but the quality of Richard Hawley as a songwriter

Irrespective of the tone or genre, what remains a constant for Richard Hawley is the strength of his voice. From crooner to rocker to somewhere in between, the Sheffield star has showcased time and again his love for the city. It does not define him, though. He may be infatuated with the streets he grew up on, but expanding that to the wider purposes of life, be it love or loss, is the purpose. Both feature on Coles Corner, an album which released on this day twenty years ago and has not lost a beat. It highlights just how exceptional a songwriter Hawley is. A career-best work followed up by two albums of similar quality. What gives Coles Corner an edge, though, is the soft desperation that still runs through it. This was a last chance for Hawley; he shared as much in a recent interview. Coles Corner is an album to be proud of, not just because it highlights what a songwriter can do when on the edge, but because it redefines how we react in times of crisis.  

Hawley could have made a mean rocker album as he tried to on Lowedges and would later build with Standing at the Sky’s Edge. But it was being brought to this edge, the adrenaline-pumping place Hunter S. Thompson likened to riding a motorbike, which brings out a softer side. We do not have to race for the finish just because we have the energy to do so. Hawley uses his moment of clarity, that feeling that this is all or nothing, to provide some of the most touching songs around. Not just in his discography, but in general. You would be hard-pressed to find a better balance of sincerity and suggestiveness when it comes to writing of love. The opening, title track is a tremendous mood setter because of how easily Hawley brings to life the city these songs take place in. They are at once tied to Sheffield but broad enough in their atmosphere to work wherever the listener finds themselves.  

Going where voices fill the air is a personal touch, one of many open-ended suggestions of what to seek out in times of trouble. Coles Corner does not guide us to one spot or another; it just highlights the loneliness across the globe. It’s a song with its roots firmly in Hawley’s birthplace, but its overview is an ever-constant phenomenon. Hold back the night and cherish the light. It’s a simple rhyme, but one presented with such conviction; such is the quality of Hawley’s vocal depth. Coles Corner presents a broad hope, a spirited optimism, where such feelings are unlikely to be a reality. The Ocean gets to grips with this best of all, an A-side ender which contrasts the title track brilliantly. It’s the hopefulness meeting the hopelessness, a story in itself and contained to the first side of Coles Corner.  

Optimism continues on the long walk home with Just Like the Rain, a song which hears out just how hard it is to get over someone. Reducing the songs to those plain strokes does steal the magic away from them, but Hawley has managed, time and again, to write with an open heart and mind. It’s the hopeful nature of his cheery best which remains in his most recent efforts. In This City They Call You Love keeps a tab on those empty streets, the aimless search for reciprocated romance. It’s not the strings which make this overlap between Coles Corner and In This City They Call You Love happen, nor is it the location, but the love. People is the best example of this from his 2023 release, as much a note of love as Coles Corner, the experience of community as warm a glow as intimate details. Hotel Room hears the other side of this; such is the importance of contrast.  

Hawley does what few have managed. He writes with an unremitting honesty and, as such, brings out the best in his listener. That first half shift from loved up to love lost is staggering. Hotel Room into Darlin’ Wait for Me is a staggering cry for another chance. It comes out of the blue, and it’s what gives Coles Corner its strength, what highlights Hawley as a great writer. He manages to write with a subtlety which romance-tinged songs now lack. Too often do we hear an artist rely on a string section or stripped-back sound to pull at our heartstrings. Every note of Coles Corner, all the words Hawley carefully considers as he writes off to a lover, is genuine. Crucial too is pushing out of your comfort zone. Not what the artist is capable of, but what you can stand to hear.  

The Ocean is an all-time great song. Its baritone vocals, the floating instrumentals with their slow build and shifting tone, present one of the finest love songs ever written. Listeners presume a love song must hold a happy end. Ambiguity has been lost to a sea of feel-good listens, which are more distractions than reactions to life. The Ocean is the latter, and is the high point of an album where each song could be considered the best in Hawley’s discography. The Ocean wins out, though, not because it is leagues ahead of anything Hawley has ever written, but, like the rest of Coles Corner, it remains an honest look at love. Ups and downs are charted tremendously in the latter half, with songs like (Wading Through) The Waters of My Time and Last Orders as reflective as they are credits to the city of Sheffield.  

What remains impressive is the overlap of strong vocal and lyrical work with steady instrumentals. A soft, old rocker-like tinge on I Sleep Alone offers a break from the hardships of slow, ballad songs. It’s a necessary break, one that highlights the incredible depths Hawley offers as a musician. He is not a man who takes himself seriously, neither in the studio nor on stage, but writes with such clarity in moments which would knock others off their feet.

The Steel City may provide a backdrop to these songs of love and life, but it is a tertiary point of interest. What comes through on Coles Corner is the metaphors of relationships, the waves of The Ocean and the final call carried out on album closer Last Orders. There is an ongoing beauty here that Hawley has struck on. Lightning in a bottle songwriting. That conscious stream overtaking the act of thought, that is what can be heard here, as it can be on other greats like Highway 61 Revisited and Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. This is a love which transcends location or intended recipient. It’s a quality which Hawley has touched on again, but it’s the sort of perfect storm most artists can only dream of. When it comes time to look back on the albums which define the modern strokes of singer-songwriter efforts, Coles Corner will be top of the pile. Nobody this century has come close to the tearjerkers, the sincerity, or the refreshing hurt featured here.