Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	79/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
BBC Music	favourable
The Daily Telegraph
Drowned in Sound	7/10
The Guardian
Mojo
Pitchfork Media	6.7/10
Q
Spin	6/10
Uncut

Truelove's Gutter is the sixth studio album from musician Richard Hawley, released on 21 September 2009 in the UK and on 22 September 2009 in the US. The album title refers to an ancient street in Hawley's native Sheffield, now thought to be the location of present-day Castle Street, which was allegedly named after 18th-century innkeeper Thomas Truelove, who used charge local people to dump their rubbish in the gutter in the street that then flowed down to the River Don. Thematically, Truelove's Gutter is Richard's darkest album to date. Richard told the BBC that the album was inspired by particularly dark periods in his life and those of others. The album features some uncommon instrumentation, such as the waterphone, megabass, and cristal baschet.

The first single, "For Your Lover Give Some Time," was released as a three-track digital download on 10 August 2009. A second single, "Open Up Your Door", was released on 30 November 2009, also as a three-track digital download.

The album was mostly well received by the critics. Allmusic said "The album is more sparse than anything he's released. Its eight songs have a decidedly late-night feel. The grand sweeping orchestral strings of his last two albums have been replaced by a chamber section and odd instrumentation... that add real intimacy to the proceedings... Truelove's Gutter is a singular moment in Hawley's catalog that displays the maturity of all his gifts. It is quietly passionate, graceful, elegant, utterly moving, and unequivocally beautiful in its honesty and sophistication."BBC Music described the album as "a classic flawed masterpiece... Repeated plays reveal some truly sumptuous treasures... His strengths and weakness as a lyricist are laid bare by the sparse, moody atmospheres" but "aside from this, it's the sheer beauty and unity of feel that make this a more than worthy addition to the Hawley discography".The Daily Telegraph believed Hawley "has a strong claim to be the country's most accomplished songwriter" and described the tracks as "grown-up love songs – elevated by hope but weighed down by experience – and they sound all the more beautiful for it".Uncut said "Throughout, his mellowness of tone is the album’s defining feature... Miraculously, thanks to the minutiae of the arrangements, it’s a sound that never becomes one dimensional". Awarding the album eight out of ten, PopMatters called Truelove's Gutter "a beautiful and deceptively simple album" and said "this is a highly recommended album by an artist who seems to keep getting better. From what initially seemed like a limited palette, Richard Hawley has produced a masterpiece of tonal space that demands full concentration."MusicOMH was similarly enthralled, saying "Just looking at the sleeve it's possible to deduce that within lies a much darker, more minimal sound relative to its predecessors... This minimal approach is matched by the sound of the album which rarely breaks its spell of intoxicating intimacy... Truelove's Gutter is yet another showcase for Hawley's subtle genius. Every sound on the album, from the notes to the vocals, is warming and rich with sensations. Six studio albums into his late-starting solo career and Hawley's light shows no signs of dwindling."

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