CHESNEY HAWKES’ NEW ALBUM ‘LIVING ARROWS’ IS OUT NOW FEATURING THE NEW FOCUS TRACK ‘13’

The resurgent Chesney Hawkes is back where he belongs after a phenomenal campaign ahead of today’s release of his new album ‘Living Arrows’. All three of its singles – ‘Loud’, ‘Get A Hold of Yourself’ and ‘Live Forever’ – have all graced the Radio 2 playlist, and he also performed an outstanding BBC Radio 2 Piano Room session. He has also enjoyed a rapturous reception at recent live shows, first touring arenas across Europe as special guest to James Blunt and then selling out his current UK headline run.

All evidence suggests that ‘Living Arrows’ will be Chesney’s biggest album hit since his 1991 debut ‘Buddy’s Song’. It shows Chesney at his most vulnerable, completely free of inhibitions or doubts. There is heartache, yes, but there is joy, too, and gratitude for everything he has in life. Combined with his heartfelt, candid style of songwriting, the album’s cohesive pop-rock sound paints a roadmap for his children, as he intended, but for listeners, too. It’s evident throughout his greatest work to date that he has nothing to hide. 
 
Undoubtedly one of the most affecting and significant songs on the record, is the new single “13”, which sees Hawkes address a childhood trauma for the first time. It begins with a grunge guitar hook, lending a tension to the track that runs through. The verses make for a difficult listen, as he sings in frank, unembellished detail. He moves seamlessly between those painful memories and a simmering anger on the chorus, aimed at the adults who should have protected him: “You just let it happen like there was nothing wrong/ For God’s sake, I was 13.”
 
Co-written with his friend and life-long collaborator Nik Kershaw and produced by the BRIT Award winner and Grammy nominee Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran, One Direction), ‘13’ reiterates that there’s an authenticity and vulnerability to Chesney’s songwriting that cuts far deeper than his famous hits.
 
Chesney says, “I’d never really opened up about some of these things that had happened to me, but when we started getting into the album I realised I wanted to be completely open, so I started digging deep. Writing ‘13’ was a kind of therapy for me. I think you get to a point in your life when you start looking back, and you realise there are still things you never dealt with properly, or buried a long time ago. It was a crazy time in the Hawkes household, and I think my brother and sister and I went under my parents’ radar a little bit.”
 
As you’d anticipate from a man who has gone from teenage sensation to parenthood and into a perhaps unexpected career resurrection, ‘Living Arrows’ is full of the varied emotions of life. There’s the escapist “let’s get drunk and get a tattoo” hedonism of ‘Nobody Like You’, lived-in moments of romantic intimacy on ‘Radio Silence’, and a playful take on the what-might’ve-been love story with ‘The Ballad of Benny & Alice’.
 
Yet they’re contrasted with moments of utmost poignancy, such as ‘The Meaning of This’, a ballad in the lineage of George Michael or Elton John that pays tribute to a family friend who took her own life at a young age. It’s also prevalent in the gorgeous soft-pop of ‘Surprise Yourself’. Dedicated to his son, Casey, it’s a reminder that life will bring him many of the same challenges and mistakes – but he has everything it takes to successfully navigate those circumstances.

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