‘THE Philharmonic is my favourite pub of all time,” chuckles Richard Hawley. “My only problem is the gents’. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very pretty, but last time I was in there a bunch of American tourists wandered in and starting taking photographs. I actually felt sorry for them – I mean, no-one wants a picture of my todger.”

You never know, I venture. But he seems sure enough.

Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs, in the 1990s. He later played with Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker. And now, he’s due to release his sixth studio album, Truelove’s Gutter, on Mute on September 21.

In grand Hawley tradition, the album is named after a lost corner of historic Sheffield, and was once again recorded in his home city’s Yellow Arch studios.

But parallels with previous releases end there, because Truelove’s Gutter marks a grand new chapter in Richard’s songwriting.

This is not only his most musically adventurous album so far, but also his most emotionally naked.

With its guilt-wracked confessionals, ballads of broken lives and tender tributes to self-destructive friends, this is a record of almost novelistic depth and ambition.

In the two years since his universally acclaimed top 10 album, Lady’s Bridge, Richard has flexed his musical muscles on numerous projects – from playing with Arctic Monkeys and Elbow, to co-producing and co-writing Tony Christie’s 2008 album, Made In Sheffield.

But nothing in his illustrious career so far has sounded quite as rich, dark and exquisitely melancholy as Truelove’s Gutter. Richard calls it his most honest, adult album yet.

“Some of the songs are personal, but a lot are observations on friends and people I know,” he explains.

“Not in a nasty, cruel way. I’m just trying to understand people rather than judge them. That’s what I was aiming for on this album, just to be honest about the state of my heart.”