SO Recordings
Hamish Hawk - Intriguer/Tenderness Hamish Hawk
“It’s actually quite scary to see what I say to myself.” — Hamish Hawk
Following the cathartic, critically acclaimed A Firmer Hand, which reached #22 in the UK Official Album Chart in August 2024, Edinburgh songwriter Hamish Hawk returns with Intriguer/Tenderness, a darker, more volatile and deeply self-reflective record that turns the scrutiny of his previous album inwards.
Where A Firmer Hand explored sexuality, masculinity and the complex power dynamics of Hawk’s relationships with other men, Intriguer/Tenderness discovers that the most complicated relationship he has to reckon with is his own.
The album is built around two opposing characters living within Hawk: Intriguer, the charismatic, aggressive, powerful and intimidating side of his personality, and Tenderness, the more submissive, domestic and vulnerable counterpart. Across the record, the two voices argue, attack and challenge one another, creating an album that is as psychologically intense as it is musically compelling.
“I thought I'd done most of my reckoning with A Firmer Hand,” says Hawk. “I could go, oh, these men have done all this – but well, what about this guy? Have I done anything to me?”
The result is an album concerned with the uneasy territory between performance and private life, power and vulnerability, guilt and shame, triumph and failure. Hawk describes the relationship between these two selves as involving “lies and deceit and notions of consent and pain and discomfort”.
Musically, Intriguer/Tenderness retains the darkness and shadow of its predecessor but is more agile, playful and unpredictable. Hawk describes it as “a lighter on its feet” record, while warning that its darkest moments are “potentially even darker”. The album moves effortlessly between swaggering electronic pulses, gothic guitar, rolling drums, fractured rhythms and theatrical melodies, creating a sound that can be both elegant and threatening within the same song.
Intriguer/Tenderness is therefore both an intensely personal album and a remarkably universal one: a record about the arguments we have with ourselves, the voices we keep hidden, and the ways performance, intimacy, shame and desire can collide.
“The stories you say in your own head to yourself are shocking if your inner monologue is really as mean-spirited as mine is.” — Hamish Hawk
Track List
Side A
A1 - Isn't
A2 - Intriguer/Tenderness
A3 - Ice-like Empty
A4 - Ego in Lotus
A5 - Half of Paris
Side B
B1 - Thirsty Girl
B2 - Mother of Vinegar
B3 - Oyster
B4 - The Tuscan Kind
B5 - Ashes, and Then Some
Pickup available at Cambridge
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Product information
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On the subject of pre-orders, please note than release dates can change (sometimes not until the scheduled release date). Please keep an eye on our website
Returns
Returns Procedure
If you wish to cancel or return an order, you need to notify us by email (quoting your order number), and wait for us to get back to you before returning goods.
We will email you with instructions and a returns reference number. When returning items to us, you will need to take reasonable care to ensure they are not damaged in transit and that they are labelled clearly with the correct address & reference number (as provided by us) :
Relevant Record Café,
260 Mill Road
Cambridge,
CB1 3NF.
We reserve the right to not process returns sent to us without prior permission.
It’s your responsibility to retain possession and to take reasonable care of the goods in the period prior to return and until you send them back to us.
Your Right To Cancel An Order
Your right to cancel your order starts from the moment you place the order, and ends 14 days from the time you receive your order.
Non-Faulty Products
If you wish to return a product because it’s unwanted or it was ordered in error, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
We’ll happily accept a return as long as the product is still in its original shrink-wrapped packaging and is completely undamaged. You have 14 days from when you receive your order to notify us that you wish to return your order.
By opening a sealed product in any way (or using any digital download code accompanying your order), you waive your right to cancel or return your order.
Obviously we’d rather offer you store credit (in the form of a gift card), but if you’d prefer a refund, we promise to get this sorted within 14 days of receiving your return.
Please take care when ordering!
Faulty Products
If you believe you have purchased a faulty or damaged record, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
Once we receive your record, it will be tested by a member of staff in store.
If your record is deemed as faulty, you will be entitled to a refund, swap or store credit (to the same value as your initial purchase).
If this record is not deemed as faulty, we will not cover any additional postage and packaging costs incurred by either you or us, and we will not be able to offer you a refund, store credit or swap.
Basically, please be absolutely certain the record you have purchased is faulty before following the returns procedure. If possible, we suggest testing the record on different turntables and weighting the tone arm differently.
Steepletone and Crosley Record Players
After having several “faulty” records returned to us (that in actuality had nothing wrong with them), we cannot guarantee that any records we sell will play correctly Crosley or Steepletone branded record players.