Two words.  “Artist” and “decade”.  Both crucial to the point, really.  Richard Hawley has been working as a musician for yonks, all the way back to his life in the mid 90s as a member of student jukebox faves Longpigs, but his solo work within the last ten years has seen him blossom into something I’m not sure even he knew he had in him.

The decade may not belong to him in the same way that it belongs to The Strokes or the Arctic Monkeys but the fact that a rock-a-billy crooner has both made his name in the noughties and remains a going concern at the end of it makes him my artist of the decade.  From an indie bit-part player to one of the most interesting artists working today, Hawley is both a special writing talent and a phenomenal performer – an “artist” in every sense of the word, essentially.

His 2001 eponymous debut album announced the lush, predominantly quiet sound, all brush strokes on the drums and slide guitar soul.  If you failed to pick up his third, the Mercury nominated Cole’s Corner (2005), then be assured that it’s one of the most beautiful albums of the decade.  It’s the details that make the difference, the opening title track beginning with a lovely string theme before, from nowhere, angelic descending chords take us to another world.  The rest of the album combines this slow moving grandeur with a contemplative echo that is heart-breaking, while “The Ocean” is a slow-building piece, putting mood ahead of structure in a way that Hawley would explore further in later work.  Lady’s Bridge (2007) followed, mostly a refinement of Cole’s Corner but with the rockabilly fader pushed up a bit further.

And then there’s Truelove’s Gutter.  Desperate to avoid treading water and (even worse) edging towards cliché, this year’s effort has exchanged half the strings for glass harmonicas and a genuine, sort-you-out-some-shelves saw.  Everything about it is sparse and delicate, and he’s somehow managed to convey the same sense of heartbreak and reflection but in a vastly different way.  So, maybe, he’s only just getting started.

I’m slightly biased.  I’ve seen him live, in York Opera House, where you can hear a pin drop thanks to the seated and mellow audience, and his astonishing voice is utterly spellbinding.  Especially when singing lyrics as evocative as, “the clothes in my younger days were so wild” (as he does in 'Hotel Room') with a gripping combination of thanks for the pleasures enjoyed and regret for the times now forever lost.

He may not have been the most influential artist of the decade, or indeed the best (whatever that means), but the most beautiful?  It’s got to be Richard Hawley.

Posted In Music Of The Noughties, Dec 16 2009. Words - Martin