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Aug 14, 2024A 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.
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Aug 15, 2024Hamish 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.
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Sep 18, 2024A 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.
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Aug 21, 2024Taken in one sitting, ‘A Firmer Hand’ is a dense and often heavy album that nevertheless contains depths of melodicism, wit and meaning that only become apparent with repeated listens.
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Aug 15, 2024A 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.
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MojoAug 14, 2024The huge exhilaration of Hawk's previous two albums has largely been replaced by more troubled moods - and more stylistic variety - but bravura lyrics remain.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]
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Record CollectorAug 14, 2024A major talent continues to flourish. [Sep 2024, p.131]
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UncutAug 14, 2024The 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]