Scottish Album Of The Year 2021 – The Skinny

Following a standout live session for Steve Lamacq at Maida Vale Studios last month, Edinburgh’s Hamish Hawk returns today with “Money”, the third single to be lifted from his much-anticipated new album “Angel Numbers”, set for release on February 3rd via Post-Electric.

PRE-ORDER “ANGEL NUMBERS” HERE

“Money” is another slice of brilliantly tongue-in-cheek post-pop from an artist who has always put melodic smarts and idiosyncrasy on an equal footing. Hamish explains the themes behind the single as follows:

“Who buys a jacket from a gunmaker? That is the question. Money is a polemical song, and it’s me at my most cynical. It’s a list of cheap shots and petty grievances I had banging around my head at the time of writing. Small talk, rat races and lengthy weddings all come under fire. It’s really no surprise that it turns out I’m the stick in the mud. What’s more, I’m interminably short on cash.”

Hamish’s upcoming album will follow 2021’s breakthrough LP “Heavy Elevator”, a sublime and literate record that saw significant plaudits at both press and radio, including – no mean feat for an artist self-releasing in the current climate – three singles playlisted at BBC 6 Music. The first single from “Angel Numbers”, its title track, and it’s follow-up, the widescreen thrill of “Think Of Us Kissing”, followed on in that trend when they were also added to the playlist earlier this year.

More recently his talent was recognised by the PRS and their PPL Momentum Fund, whose support for developing artists saw live activity across the Spring and him return to Post Electric Studio with long-time producer and collaborator, Rod Jones of Idlewild, who helped Hamish and his band to record the 11 songs that make up “Angel Numbers”.

Rich of voice and even richer of imagination, Hawk creates musical pen-portraits, chamber pop songs that have swallowed both a dictionary and a compendium of modern urban (and island) fairy tales. And Hawk does all this with considerable wit, inspired by artists like Leonard Cohen, Jarvis Cocker, Randy Newman and Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields.