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A Firmer Hand Image
Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The latest full-length release from Scottish singer-songwriter Hamish Hawk was inspired in part by some of his personal relationships.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Aug 14, 2024
    100
    A Firmer Hand is an album in which Hawk daringly takes a searchlight to the complexities of the relationships with men in his life ('friends, lovers, family, colleagues') and, by extension, to the complexities within himself. The result is dazzling.
  2. Aug 15, 2024
    90
    Hamish Hawk’s best album to date, a big, bold lesson in taking risks and letting the mask drop when things threaten to get too arch. It’s the sort of record that already sounds timeless.
  3. Mojo
    Aug 14, 2024
    80
    The huge exhilaration of Hawk's previous two albums has largely been replaced by more troubled moods - and more stylistic variety - but bravura lyrics remain. [Sep 2024, p.86]
  4. Record Collector
    Aug 14, 2024
    80
    A major talent continues to flourish. [Sep 2024, p.131]
  5. Aug 15, 2024
    80
    A Firmer Hand is such a thrilling listen because it eschews the platitudes of empowerment for something far more gritty, tough, self-critical – yet also unafraid to dish it out.
  6. 80
    A Firmer Hand not only cements Hawk’s status as a unique voice in modern culture but also builds anticipation for the exciting directions his future works might take on and off stage.
  7. Uncut
    Aug 14, 2024
    60
    The chugging arrangements are often overwrought, and the lyrics slightly too pleased with themselves, but Hawk's lusty baritone croons lend passion and swagger to salacious funk-pop confessional "Big Cat Tattoos" and the sardonic, self-lacerating "Questionable Hit". [Sep 2024, p.33]

See all 8 Critic Reviews