Milk for Flowers

The very start of Milk for Flowers makes it clear that things have changed for Welsh singer/songwriter Huw Evans, aka H. Hawkline. Previous albums were driven by scratchy guitars that danced around the vocals like wired little imps. The title track kicks off with a thumping piano, then the lush horns, guitars, and backing vocals come in to surround his plaintive vocals in a comforting embrace. Its a change that plays out through the rest of the album as Evans, longtime collaborator Cate le Bon (who occupies the producers chair), and a top-notch band plumb deep emotional depths, build impressively rich arrangements, and deliver a record thats a big leap forward. Not that earlier H. Hawkline albums are deficient in any way; theyre solid and sometimes quite thrilling examples of bouncy, itchy post-punk songcraft. This is just something bigger and more moving. Its obvious that Evans has dealt with some suffering and loss since his last record -- the lyrical content revolves around death and uncertainty -- but he doesnt wallow in it. Theres just enough calming reserve to allow for the feelings to breathe. Its the same with the arrangements and music. The exchange of guitars for piano, the fuller arrangements, and echoing harmony vocals manage to make the record feel more intimate even as it takes up more space sonically. It helps, too, that along with the jumpy, bumpy songs that have some rock & roll nerve to them -- like the insistent "Plastic Man," which sounds similar to what Roxy Music might sound like if they were sad and clad in corduroy instead of feathers -- and the cold-to-the-touch night-drive songs one might expect if they were familiar with H. Hawkline ("Like You Do"), this time out there are some brilliantly constructed twists. Evans and crew prove very adept at both middle-of-the-night ballads ("Mostly," "Like You Do") and cosmic cowboy laments ("I Need Him"). On the latter, his soaring falsetto cracks and flutters as the pedal steel sings in sympathy; on the former, the band layer in enough subtle tricks and underplayed sweetness that Evans can spill his guts without feeling the need to overemote to get the feeling across. To that end, the records breakout star isnt one of the rockers; instead, its the ballad "Suppression Street." The song is a perfect blend of sound and feeling that matches one of Evans most heartrending lyrics and vocals with fluttering saxes, vocoder-treated backing vocals, twinkling keyboard fills, and a melody that is both heavy and uplifting. Its emblematic of the rest of Milk for Flowers in that it makes the listener feel both warmly good and tearfully bad at the same time. Thats a satisfying dichotomy and one thats hard to pull off. With Le Bon and his bands help, Evans has done it, and in the process hes made the best H. Hawkline record to date. ~ Tim Sendra