Facts and Stats: H.O.L.L.A.N.D. (named with the World War II acronym for the phrase “Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies” in mind) is Pete Williams’ third album, and was released in 2018. Williams continues to work with some names familiar from previous albums – Shez Sheridan (guitar), Dean Beresford (drums), Clive Mellor (harmonica), plus Laurence Saywood (bass) and Andrew Wellings (guitar) also joining the core group. Mike Timm returns to produce with Sheridan as does David Glover as engineer.
What The Critics Thought: Classic Rock magazine (August 2018) considered this the third and final album of Williams’ “Sheffield Trilogy”. They said Williams has the ability to “make magic from the mundane, to find shades of sublimity in the humdrum” and the “relative plainness of his mostly acoustic arrangements is also strangely refreshing, in an age super-saturated with multitracking and overdubs”.
What We Think: the album’s title is fitting for the low key romanticism of songs like “Lucky In Love”, the reflective look back of “Photograph” and the gentle pondering of love at a great height on “Heart Etc”. Piano and whistle enchant on “Caledonia”; ukulele and toy glockenspiel twinkle on “Fondly”, with Williams wondering whether he will be well remembered, as the sound of the sea closes.
When the pace steps up, such as on the quietly energetic “Wind Whispers”, the thundering “So Far So Good” and the spirited stomp on loneliness “Twice Around The Bend”, no subtlety is lost. The album always manages to be distinctive; the passionate “Twists Of Fate” benefits from group backing vocals and Williams’ clarinet.
The song-writing hits its peak when Williams takes a harder look at either himself or the world around him. The tough confessional of “On A Night Such As This” includes some difficult words (“say what you want to as you always do, I’ve spent all that time listening to you and I didn’t get no answers” and the hard worn “so much of your good intentions to make a better man out of me”). In “Paradise” Williams, trying to “do right for something or somebody else”, still compares himself to Dracula character Jonathan Harker “heading for Transylvania”. But the high point must be the carefree melody and sunny afternoon walk of “Road”, embedded with an eye out for his fellow man in the worry of the modern world, making it all the more of an interesting trip.
Label: Baseheart Recordings
Release Date: 27 JUL 2018
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