H. Hawkline - Milk For Flowers (LP)

Milk For Flowers finds H. Hawkline, the Welsh songwriter Huw Evans, at his most open and disarming. Released on 10 March 2023 by Heavenly Recordings and produced by long‑time collaborator Cate Le Bon, it plays like a private conversation that somehow keeps blossoming into immaculate pop. The title hints at it. These are songs about tending to what hurts and watching something strange and beautiful grow from it. Evans has always had a knack for smart, off‑kilter melodies, but here he pares things back just enough to let the words and arrangements breathe.

You can hear the care in the opening stretch. The title track drifts in on a hushed pulse, Evans almost whispering through lines that feel handwritten, then the arrangement fills with soft piano, woodwind, and gently spiraling guitar. “Plastic Man” has that classic H. Hawkline trick where a melody you think you know tilts at a different angle and suddenly you’re in a new room. “Suppression Street” moves like a subdued dance, bass locking into a modest strut while guitars sketch around the edges. None of it shouts. The record trusts you to lean in.

Cate Le Bon’s production gives the songs a tactile glow. She knows how to frame Evans’s voice so the consonants carry, how to let small details do the heavy lifting. A solitary piano figure, a clarinet shadow, a cymbal bloom that lands right as a lyric catches, those moments add up. It feels like two artists who have logged serious time together and know when to step aside. Evans has used psychedelic touches before, but the colour here serves the feeling. The choruses bloom, then fall back to earth, like the record is breathing with him.

Grief runs through these songs, though they never feel heavy for the sake of it. In interviews around the release, Evans talked about loss and the pull of family. You can hear that tug in the way he sings about memory and the body, about trying to keep a shape when the world insists on changing it. The miracle is how often he finds light. Melodies lift at the right second. Harmonies land with a slight quiver. Even the saddest lines come with warmth at the edges, the way a friend might hand you a cup of tea and let the silence do some talking.

Critics picked up on that balance. The album drew strong praise from The Guardian and Pitchfork, and it felt like one of those releases that spread by word of mouth. People who already loved H. Hawkline got the record they were hoping for. People who knew him only as a name on a Heavenly bill discovered a songwriter operating in that timeless space between art pop and classic songcraft. It sits comfortably next to his earlier standouts like In the Pink of Condition and I Romanticize, but the core is more vulnerable, the arrangements more attuned to breath and pause.

On vinyl the whole thing makes even more sense. Milk For Flowers vinyl carries an intimacy that flatters the room, with the vocals unspooling at center and the small percussion flickers tucked into the corners. If you are building a shelf of H. Hawkline albums on vinyl, this is the one that turns casual admiration into devotion. I spotted a copy at a Melbourne record store the other week and had that little wince you get when you know you will kick yourself if you leave it behind. The sleeve work looks great in person and the sequencing loves the side break. If you like to buy H. Hawkline records online, the Heavenly pressing has been easy to find and worth snagging before it slips. Collectors hunting for H. Hawkline vinyl will know the feeling. It is the kind of record you end up recommending to friends who still ask where to start with modern guitar pop. And for those browsing vinyl records Australia sites, this one ships well and rewards a quiet room.

What sticks after a few spins is how sturdy these songs are. They hum at low volume in the kitchen. They bloom late at night with the lights down. They carry private history and still make space for anyone willing to listen. That is the quiet gift of Milk For Flowers. It holds the weight, then lets you carry only what you need.