Richard Hawley – Coles Corner (20th anniversary, Picture Disc Edition)

Twenty years on, Coles Corner (20th Anniversary Edition) still resonates as a luminous testament to Richard Hawley’s heartfelt artistry.

Revisiting Coles Corner in this deluxe form reminds listeners why the original release became so beloved: its blend of chamber‑pop, country, blues, and rock’n’roll feels timeless, and Hawley’s baritone voice continues to envelop each song with warm nostalgia and quiet longing. The added tracks reveal different facets of the album—stripped‑back intimacy, live immediacy, and playful reinterpretation—making this edition both a celebration of the past and a fresh invitation to fall in love with these songs all over again.

Reviews

"Early rock & roll and rockabilly, country, traces of the vintage‑’40s pop, jazz, and even some blues, fall together in a seamless, nearly rapturous whole... Coles Corner is glorious, magical, and utterly lovely in its vision, articulation, and execution." – AllMusic

"Coles Corner heads full‑bore into the vintage sounds of five decades ago... It takes a certain flair for a modern‑day artist to pull off such a retro sound, and Hawley’s complete lack of irony and bombast on this record makes it work... It’s achingly beautiful, disarmingly intimate, simply the best‑kept secret in popular music today." – PopMatters

"Old‑fashioned, lovelorn, immaculately produced songs... [Hawley’s] third album follows the template of its predecessors... if there is a difference it’s in the richness of the emotions and textures." – The Guardian

"A glorious melange of love, loss, regret, homesickness and romance." – Mojo

"Coles Corner is unapologetically retro to the max but it works... Hawley resides deep inside this material, writing songs with the melodic muscle to stand up next to standards... you realize that Hawley’s music can go wherever he wants it to go. He’s not stuck in the past... He inhabits his record collection because he likes it there and has a feeling we will too. He’s right." – Pitchfork