Advice on what to listen to...

The first time I heard Richard Hawley was about two years ago in the fantastic documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop made by the street artist Banksy. Hawley's song "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" opens and closes the film. I looked him up when the film was over and have been a fan since. He's a contemporary English musician who mixes a wide range of genres across his various albums. My two favorite albums of his are Coles Corner, which is his most popular and critically acclaimed, and Truelove's Gutter. I hadn't listened to them in about six months, so sat near the water in a bay on a cloudy day and listened. The track I'm recommending below is the title song of Coles Corner. It was really getting into my head. I listened to it on repeat. It reminds me of wandering through softly lit pedestrian thoroughfares in fall or winter, surrounded by others but awfully alone, like in Boulder or Iowa City, or even the haymarket in Lincoln.

Was pretty sad today (I know I know, me sad?!). On a bike ride at night it started to rain a gentle downpour and it felt nice to be caught in it. It barely rains here now, since the draught started a few years ago. I couldn't help but think though how lovely a rain it was being wasted on me and my bicycle. It would have been so much better spent on lovers holding hands on a walk through any dark autumn street of Iowa City.

Sigh. Every day hurts, but holidays hurt in a special kind of way. Or maybe they don't. Maybe I can't tell the difference between days anymore. I don't even know. Anyway:

"Coles Corner" – Richard Hawley

"I'm going downtown where there's music.
I'm going where voices fill the air.
Maybe there's someone waiting for me,
with a smile and a flower in her hair.

I'm going downtown where there's people.
My loneliness hangs in the air.
With no one there real waiting for me,
no smile, no flower nowhere."