Paul Hawkins & The Awkward Silences – Outsider Pop

Description

“entertaining, thought provoking, lyrically razor sharp…. thanks be to bands who have something to say in a truly independent style” PENNYBLACKMUSIC
“a highly infectious album of pop parodies that penetrate the bland veneer of the contemporary irksome vacuum known as the mainstream. Shambling discontent at its finest.” MONOLITH COCKTAIL

Paul Hawkins emerged from the UK antifolk scene in the mid-noughties with his skewed stories of modern life as rendered on cult lo-fi CD-R album “The Misdiagnosis Of Paul Hawkins”. Thee Awkward Silences then assembled to back him with a post-punk garage thump. Two critically acclaimed albums on the Jezus Factory label were followed by an EP on Audio Antihero. Now The Awkward Silences have signed to Blang, dropped the ‘e’ from their definite article and released “Outsider Pop”. Again produced by Ian Button (Death In Vegas/Papernut Cambridge/Extradition Order/David Cronenberg’s Wife/Gare Du Nord label) he sound delves more into post-punk-funk territory with a disco sheen over which Hawkins continues to relate his tales of marginalised figures and political machinations.

1 How We Lost The War
2 The Precautionary Principle
3 The Day I Saved The World
4 (How I Left The) New World Order
5 The Black Hound Of The Western Wood
6 The Canonbury Witch Trials
7 It Takes A Nation Of Idiots To Hold Me Back
8 The Substitute
9 Johnny
10 Walt Will Rise Again