Richard Hawley reveals second track Heavy Rain

Taken from the forthcoming album In This City They Call You Love - Out 31 May

Following the release last month of Richard Hawley’s ‘Two For His Heels’ (A-listed at BBC Radio 6 Music), the first single to be taken from his forthcoming album ‘In This City They Call You Love’, today BMG release the second track from the album, ‘Heavy Rain’.

‘Heavy Rain’ is a lament for absent friends. Its subtle arrangement and beautiful melody is 'vintage Hawley', on a song that would not be out of place on his seminal Coles Corner album.

“A lot of this comes straight from the demo I did in my little shed in the garden I call Disgracelands,” says Richard. “If you listen hard, you can hear birdsong and dogs barking and kids shouting over each other. The Heavy Rain aspect is about the feeling when you find out you’re going to lose someone.”

The song is from the forthcoming album In This City They Call You Love, released on 31 May. It features 12 outstanding songs, which are amongst some of the finest ballads he's ever written and recorded. Gorgeous melodies and arrangements are accompanied by Hawley’s emotive and sonorous voice, which sounds better than ever, on an album that further confirms his place as one of the finest songwriters of his generation, in a hugely successful recording career approaching 25 years.

The album’s title is taken from the song ‘People’, which might well be the greatest song Hawley has written about his beloved Sheffield, the city’s proud industrial past and the enduring determination of its citizens.

“I’ve made three albums where I had the title before I'd even begun to record, where I had an agenda. One was Truelove’s Gutter. Another was Standing At The Sky's Edge when I wanted to turn everything up and make the music a lot more aggressive, and then this one. I wanted it to be multi-coloured in a way... focusing on the voice and what voices can do together... I deliberately only played a handful of guitar solos to keep it focused on voices, the song and space...” – Richard Hawley.

• Listen HERE
• Watch lyric video HERE