| · Titled for and loosely themed around the dual nature of men, Lover/Fighter showcases the evolution of wunderkind Hawksley Workman and his unpredictable sound. See Hawksley work it live Monday, October 6 at the Whiskey.
Here’s what’s good:
Most of it. Hawksley Workman’s nearly operatic, yearning tenor voice is one of the most unusual and beautiful pop voices around, and it’s almost always coupled with catchy, melodic tunes.
Workman definitely writes some of the better one- and-two liners in the business – "What Jesus can’t fix tonight/ The whiskey certainly might." Ah hell, let’s not damn with faint praise – he’s a pretty good songwriter all around, with a talent for lyrics that’ll stick in your head like burrs. The anthemic "We Will Still Need a Song," the sweet pop of "No Reason to Cry Your Eyes Out," and the moody "The Future Language of Slaves," are especially good.
The nearly too-precious quirkiness of his previous two albums is smoothed out with Lover/Fighter. The strange, hectic, bumpy mélange of David Bowie and Queen meets the Weimar Republic has faded, to be replaced by a more cohesive, less derivative sound.
Here’s what’s not so good:
The mixing is frustrating in places. Workman played all the instruments and produced it in the bargain, à lá Prince. While he has the talent to more or less pull it off, the album suffers at points from the fact that his were apparently the only ears making decisions. This is, however, a fairly minor quibble.
Workman’s talent for straight-faced posturing and stylish musical excess is possibly his greatest strength and weakness. Lover/Fighter is by no means an ordinary album, but it’s a bit ordinary by Workman’s standards. It’s a smoother, more cohesive album than he has delivered in the past, but it lacks the wild, unpredictable, playful mood swings of his previous two albums.
All in all, Lover/Fighter is a strong step in a career that’s bound to be long and full of surprises. I didn’t fall in love with this one, but we’re definitely on increasingly intimate terms.
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