Hawksley Workman
Los Manlicious
Universal Music, 2008
European-only Release
By Jake Shenker
With the death of the record industry imminent, the major labels are hanging on for dear life — mostly by resisting any kind of change and desperately clinging to an outdated model. The smart ones, however, are taking cues from revolutionary minds like David Byrne and Rick Rubin and are developing new models for selling music in today’s world.
And so it would seem that Universal Records is not that smart.
Since releasing his debut album, For Him and the Girls, in 1999, Hawksley Workman has released nine more albums — that’s ten records in almost as many years. Of those ten, six can be found on the shelves of your local record store, and three more can be purchased off Hawksley’s official website or at his shows.
So what about that elusive tenth album?
Well, it’s called Los Manlicious, and it was released last week in select parts of Europe only. It’s only fair, I guess, since just four months ago, Canadians were treated to Between the Beautifuls, released only in Canada.
This cunning plan — the record label’s plan, that is — is to maximize profit by releasing niche albums to specific demographics. Canada got another introspective, acoustic-driven album, while Europe got fast, loud, catchy rock ‘n’ roll.
Whatever the logic behind this decision, Canadian Hawksley fans are scrambling to hear this album any way they can: some are resorting to illegal downloads, while others — like myself — are paying too much money to import the CD from websites like Amazon.com.
The thing is, the effort is worth it. Los Manlicious may be Hawksley’s best album since 2001’s (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves. It’s original yet catchy, eccentric yet coherent, and just plain rocks. Tracks like “When You Gonna Flower” and “Is This What You Call Love?” are as heavy as they come, layered with crunchy distorted guitars and fat drum beats, and topped off with Hawksley’s most powerful vocal performances in years. “Lonely People” is a slick pop-rock tune with beautifully layered background vocals, and “Kissing Girls” is easily the best song to ever make me dance the Robot. Hawksley explores some new ground with “Girls On Crutches,” a slow, electronic-sounding tune led by synth-bass, accompanied by a weird saxophone melody and a painfully catchy chorus. And the album’s closing track, “Fatty Wants to Dance,” sounds like the theme song from Shaft.
Need I say more?
And if you’re not convinced yet, just listen to “It’s a Drug,” which is one of the best Hawksley Workman songs ever written.
Los Manlicious is certainly a more mainstream rock album than his earlier work. But, unlike his 2003 album Lover/Fighter (which strived for a similar goal), this album sounds — and feels — like classic Hawksley.
When I spoke with Hawksley a few months ago, he told me that he’d “really like to have a hit record before North America collapses into economic ruin.” Well, if Universal ever realizes their blunder and distributes Los Manlicious on this continent, he might just get his wish.
For those that can’t wait, the entire album can be streamed online, legally, for free, and in poor sound quality, at this location.
Update: While you still can’t buy the CD in Canada, you can now buy a digital copy of the album from Hawksley’s website, hawksleyworkman.com.
I agree, best Hawksley in a long time. Fatty want to dance! (but he can’t)