Hawksley Workman - Old Cheetah

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 8 / 9 / 2015

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Review

Old Cheetah’ is Canadian Workman’s first solo recording since he returned to drum duties with Mounties, the band which has been described as an ‘indie rock supergroup’. Never an artist to easily get a hold on, sometimes it feels like Workman is his own worst enemy. That he usually crams more ideas in to one song than most artists are capable of capturing over a whole album doesn’t always pay off. Those looking for a quick musical fix to get them through a journey, a bad day, or sleepless night would probably give ‘Old Cheetah’ a wide berth. It’s not an album that is easily digested and it requires more than a little patience, but although at times it’s all over the place it is, if you have the time to stick with it, ultimately rewarding and quite unlike anything you’ve heard since, well, the last Hawksley Workman album. ‘Old Cheetah’ is very much a mood album. You have to be in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate the dozen songs on offer and it’s guaranteed that no matter how you feel as the twenty-second opening melee which goes under the title of ‘Intro (that’s hot)’ by the time the closing ‘A Special Pride’ surfaces some fifty minutes later you’ll feel, that although you’ve been dragged backwards through some weird and wonderful musical journey that started sometime in the seventies and has yet to end, not only pleasantly exhausted but that Workman is truly one of the most innovative artists around today. Despite suddenly throwing in curves, going in totally unexpected directions and touching upon so many differing musical styles that really shouldn’t gel so well together. Workman has produced an album that, after a few plays, is hard not to return to whenever you want to listen to something that while in a genre of its own is actually irresistible. It is weird at times for sure but maybe that just adds to the attraction. Workman is known for mixing various genres in his past work and on ‘Old Cheetah’ he doesn’t disappoint; he’s one of the few artists who is keeping the glam rock light burning brightly without sounding at all dated, and the cabaret stylings that he also injects into these songs, along with his pop sensibilities, ensure that while the listener is forever discovering new sounds and directions with each play there’s always something in each song that they can immediately latch on to. ‘1,000 Miles Of Atmosphere’ has to be singled out; at nine minutes long it displays all sides of Workman’s music. Workman not only shows off his distinctive falsetto (as he does on many of the songs here) but his vocals flit from the breathy opening lines to a more harder classic rock sound in some sections of the song. It’s an ever changing super-charged piece of modern day prog rock, the kind that we thought had long been dead and buried. Even at nine minutes long the track never once meanders off into boring prog rock territory, encompassing so many changes it should be an unlistenable mess, especially at that length, but it’s the highlight of the album and an indicator that Workman knows how to work his very unique musical vision into songs that are captivating. ‘Don’t Take Yourself Away (Instant Nostalgia)’ has the listener thinking that they are tuned into some 80's radio station with the synth embellishments and instantly appealing hooks immediately eating into the brain but by the time the song ends Workman has created a song that is so contemporary you’re left wondering how the hell he did it. The musical space between songs such as ‘Not Over You’, a touching love-lost ballad, and ‘Teenage Cats’ a backwards glance at lost youth which features Workman’s high pitched falsetto, is immense. At times, if it wasn’t for that voice, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was some kind of compilation highlighting different genres and decades. ‘Old Cheetah’ is the latest in a line of unique albums featuring the exceptional and unpredictable Hawksley Workman. It may well take a few plays before it all makes sense but stick with it and be rewarded with an album that you’ll return to again and again.

Track Listing:-

1 Intro (That's Hot)
2 Make up Your Mind Tonight
3 Teenage Cats
4 1,000 Miles of Atmosphere
5 Don't Take Yourself Away
6 Not over You
7 We're Not Broken Yet
8 I Just so Happen to Believe
9 It's Really Starting to Snow
10 Small Town Dracula
11 Winter Bird
12 A Special Pride

Band Links:-

https://twitter.com/hawksleyworkman
http://hawksleyworkman.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hawksle
https://www.youtube.com/user/IsadoraRe
https://instagram.com/hawksleyworkman/

Label Links:-

http://sixshooterrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SixShooterRec
https://twitter.com/SixShooterR
https://www.youtube.com/user/sixshoote
http://www.rdio.com/people/SixShooterR
https://instagram.com/sixshooterrecord