Posted on: October 28, 2011 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

How Do You Do is an album that is like fine wine; it gets better with age. Get To Know You is an impressive introduction, with emotive sentiments tying in perfectly with intricate arrangements. The intense feelings that are brought to bear during How Do You Do represent the glue that holds the track together. While there are definitely rising and falling moments to be experienced here, the same nuanced, knotted style that is present in Finally Falling is further refined and spun off for a Hooked or The News. You Called Me immediately follows the tour de force that is the ninety second The News, and slows things down. This has the added effect of snapping listeners’ attention back to the lyrical and personal aspect of the album. How Do You Do is a cohesive and cogent album, something intelligent in a sea of half-baked whining odes to a love lost, spread out over a tremendous amount of genres.

There is such a trend in current music to stick a few singles alongside an entire body of sub-par tracks, but all one needs to do is listen to a late album track like You’re Not Ready or the concluding No Strings to see that Hawthorne is putting in eir all even at the last strains of the title. How Do You Do is the perfect introduction for anyone into the mystique that is Mayer Hawthorne, while it represents a nice evolution in the sound that ey cultivated during 2009’s A Strange Arrangement. Give How Do You Do a spin and see Hawthorne live, whenever ey comes to your neck of the woods.

Top Tracks: Get To Know You, You’re Not Ready

Rating: 8.1/10

Mayer Hawthorne – How Do You Do (CD) / 2011 Republic Records / 12 Tracks / http://www.mayerhawthorne.com

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