Cole's Corner
by Richard Hawley
  • Record Label: Mute
  • Release Date: Sep 6, 2005
Metascore
85

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Stylus Magazine
    100
    This is a quietly pulsing release, alive with simple pleasures and celebrating events like hanging out and running into people you know.
  2. AllMusic
    90
    Cole's Corner is glorious, magical, and utterly lovely in its vision, articulation, and execution.
  3. Trouser Press
    90
    The propensities for treacle and brimstone are cut by the realism of his portraits and the certitude in his voice. A Nick Drake-like wonder here, it is sonorous, even-keeled and assured.
  5. Pitchfork
    81
    Coles Corner is unapologetically retro to the max but it works.
  6. Mojo
    80
    A glorious melange of love, loss, regret, homesickness and romance. [Sep 2005, p.86]
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  7. musicOMH.com
    80
    An album of gorgeous, lush songs.
  8. PopMatters
    80
    It's achingly beautiful, disarmingly intimate, simply the best-kept secret in popular music today.
  9. Q Magazine
    80
    Work every bit as lush as that which recently propelled Rufus Wainwright to stardom. [Sep 2005, p.119]
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  10. The Guardian
    80
    If there is a difference it's in the richness of the emotions and textures.
  11. Dot Music
    80
    A quietly timeless triumph.
  12. Uncut
    80
    Hawley resurrects ghosts of music past and breathes new, poignant life into their forms. [Oct 2005, p.110]
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  13. Billboard
    80
    Throughout, he manages to dip into old-school doo-wop sounds, grand orchestral ballads and Johnny Cash-inspired country anthems, not at the same time, but almost within their own little worlds.
  14. Paste Magazine
    80
    Hawley's empathic delivery reveals the indelible stamp these relationships leave on his protagonists' hearts. [Dec 2005, p.126]
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  15. Playlouder
    70
    If there's a snag it's not that the album exactly dips - it's just there's a lack of variation of pace, meaning it can be difficult to consume in its entirety at just one sitting. But, with a little patience, it comes alive.
  16. Under The Radar
    70
    Stylistically patchy but a sincere and winning catalog of his songwriting and vocal repertoire. [#10, p.106]
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  17. New Musical Express (NME)
    70
    His best yet. [3 Sep 2005, p.74]
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Awards & Rankings

25
#25 Best Album of 2005

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 37 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 37
  3. Negative: 4 out of 37
  1. MattJ
    Oct 15, 2006
    10
    A classic
  2. JohanL
    Jun 3, 2006
    10
    Fantastic!
  3. Ricko
    Nov 19, 2017
    9
    Magnificient record from the Sheffield songwriter and well worthy of its Mercury Music Prize nomination. The songwriting is on "Coles Corner"Magnificient record from the Sheffield songwriter and well worthy of its Mercury Music Prize nomination. The songwriting is on "Coles Corner" is first class and throughout it just feels like a record from another time. Hints of Bacharach can be found throughout but with the rock n'roll never too far away. This album is a thing of beauty and filled with diamonds but my personal highlights would be opener "Coles Corner", "Just Like The Rain", "The Ocean" and "Born Under A Bad Sign".… Full Review »
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