Not that lazy after all...

Turns out you can be a 40+ North-American first rate Rock vocalist and I may have never heard of you… yet. The name is Hawksley Workman. And the man behind that name is a 44-year old Toronto native who’s been making music and recording albums since the late 90’s. In other words, I should have known better.

What’s adding insult to injury is the fact that Workman’s style is right down my alley: strong Rock riffs with a hugely powerful voice, just my kind of stuff (reminder: my favorite band is Queen). And he earned a Juno award (Canada’s answer to the Grammys) early on in his career, and he’s been releasing new work regularly ever since. The only thing I can say in my defence — besides the fact that Toronto is further away than New York — is that Workman’s earlier outings, although featuring his always excellent vocals, were infused with strong levels of 90’s post-punk/rock stylings, much in the way of his Offspring / Green Day peers. Which meant that the nervousness in his songs made for a very appealing first hearing, but not necessarily a truly lasting impression, with said Offspring and Green Day also playing on the radio then. Being a challenger is not always fun.

Such is the case with “Jealous of your cigarette”, a 2001 track of his that was featured on his breakthrough album (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves — I’m telling you, even his titles are funny… That album got him the Juno the following year, garnering enough attention to be taken seriously in the business. And every couple of years since, he’s been releasing new LPs, trying out different things and sounds along the way as part of a seemingly endless creative streak.

Then came “Lazy”.

"Lazy", Median Age Wasteland, 2019.

Taken from Workman’s brand new Median age wasteland album, this song is a somewhat more contemplative piece that essentially serves as a springboard for his perfectly grandiose vocals. The rest of the song isn’t bad either — melody’s nice, guitar bridge is perfectly listenable, music video is nice and clean… — but what really matters here is the voice. And the fact that we — or at the very least I — didn’t know about it before — the voice or the man behind it.

In short, you need to listen to this. And then question what you were doing listening to other, worse, shit before. You’re welcome.