Richard Hawley: timeless; peerless.

An escaped Britpop occasional with Longpigs and Pulp against his name, Hawley solo is a curator of new music that sounds old, old looks and styles wearing new clothes, new threads wound round old melodies, and a new song-writing legend giving voice to timeless sentiment. And legend is not putting it too strong, I hope, just as I hope that future generations will pick up a Richard Hawley album and catch the same wave of something unpindownable that I felt from the Buddy Holly songs I found in my own childhood.

Born Under a Bad Sign is Hawley at his simple, elegant peak. That is to say, Hawley going about his business as usual.