Hawksley Workman - Lover-Fighter

There's a perverse sort of fascination watching an artist who received substantial early plaudits piddle away his critical goodwill with a series of puzzling follow-up releases. Even looking at Lover-fighter from the perspective of a fan, it's hard to know what Hawksley Workman was thinking with some of the heavy-handed production choices, though. Right off the bat, "We Will Still Need a Song" -- by any other measure a classic Workman song -- is polished to a glassy sheen more reminiscent of U2 than Workman, a situation that's also true with the first single "Anger as Beauty." That's not to say that either of them are particularly bad songs, but there's something oddly generic about them, which is why this is such a frustrating release: Workman has already proven that he's capable of releasing unique material, both lyrically and musically, while still having pop appeal, and the glossy 80s-style production seems misplaced both in terms of necessity -- it's most certainly not necessary -- but also in terms of style -- why pick a sound this datedNULL It's also worth noting that lyrically there's a certain repetitiveness here; Workman name-checks whiskey on three separate songs (four if you count the hidden bonus tracks) and talks about being drunk on three others (though thankfully not on the two songs about automobiles). Read More