<a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Were-Too-Far-Away-Cover-Art.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-14877" src="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Were-Too-Far-Away-Cover-Art-298x300.jpg" alt="We're Too Far Away (My Other Future, My Other Youth)" width="324" height="326" /></a>We've been itching to give you a taste of the sublime debut album from the inimitable Western Australian songwriter <a title="Craig Hallsworth" href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/craig-hallsworth/">Craig Hallsworth</a> and now the itching can cease! 'We're Too Far Away (My Other Future, My Other Youth)' is the first single lifted from <em>What's The Story With This Hole?</em>. Many will know the man from some of Perth's pivotal seminal outifts such as The Bamboos, The Healers, wild palms, Zuvuya, Outstation, <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/the-slow-beings/">The Slow Beings</a>, <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/tangled-star/">Tangled Star</a> so this solo outing should rightly come with some level of excitement and expectation. We can guarantee that you'll have your expectations and me and your appetites whet! Stream the single <a title="SoundCloud" href="https://soundcloud.com/hidden_shoal/craig-hallsworth-were-too-far-away-my-other-future-my-other-youth">here </a>and download it for free <a title="Bandcamp" href="https://craighallsworth.bandcamp.com/releases" target="_blank">here</a>. More on the new album below.

With over 30 years of songwriting experience under his belt, Craig Hallsworth makes <em>What’s The Story With This Hole?</em> feel effortless yet boundless. Recorded and produced with long-time collaborator Al Smith (<a title="DrAlienSmith" href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/draliensmith/" target="_blank">DrAlienSmith</a>, Bergerk Studios), the album represents the most musically developed and fully realised recording the pair have delivered to date. On the surface, these are perfectly composed and innately melodic pop/rock songs, with Hallsworth’s guitars alternately shimmering and snarling around his unmistakably keening vocals. The real magic, however, lies a little concealed; songs often end up somewhere very different from where they started, and Hallsworth’s often surreal lyrical excursions act in striking counterpoint to the music.

It’s this juxtaposition that makes <em>What’s The Story With This Hole?</em> so special – musically rich and familiar sounds taken into unrelated narrative territories. In Hallsworth’s own words, “To me, the mysterious undecidability in the words plays a crucial part in the overall experience of the songs, making them events of sense and sensation. It isn’t so much that I consider the lyrics to be poetry, but I think a sense of poetry would be useful in approaching these songs.”

<em>“Craig Hallsworth knows his way around a tune with this set of sparkling power-pop, set with a country twang and cosmic touch”</em> – <strong>2ser on Tangled Star’s album <a title="Let's Adjourn To The Garden" href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/tangled-star/" target="_blank"><em>Let’s Adjourn to the Garden</em></a></strong>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/282655331&amp;color=000000&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>