Joe Hawley faces legal issues on thrilling self-titled album
By Sarah Becker
Joe Hawley's Joe Hawley Joe Hawley's Joe Hawley's venture into art pop, with the 13-track album being released on October 21st, 2016. The whimsical energy is limitless as he raps about groceries, basketball, and wizards over electronic beats, while also diving through personal trauma to create darker pieces.
The Tally Hall bandmates individually reunited with Joe for the album, but this wasn't the first time; Five of the six members can be found on the viral 2012 album Hawaii: Part II, with Hawley also releasing the demo album Hawaii: Part II: Part ii and "Candle on the Water" in 2014 under it. Miracle Musical ended in 2015 after publishing the 8-bit game Labyrinth and its soundtrack Hawaii Partii.
Despite a release under Hawley's name, the album is far from a solo effort. Dozens of other collaborators appear throughout it, including various other musicians and bands that took influence from the group. It's like the No.6 Collaborations Project of Tally Hall's fanbase.
Joe Hawley's album had a lot of collaborators and samples
It wasn't long before Joe Hawley released several commercials to promote his album, releasing it to streaming in 2016. Joe Hawley Joe Hawley's two most popular songs were "Bring Her Along," featuring Andrew Horowitz (Horowitz has also performed under the pseudonym edu), and "Rotary Park", featuring Zubin Sedghi.
A few years later, the album was removed from all platforms. A quick listen proves why that happened: The artists sampled triples the number of collaborators, with Disney, Queen, Nintendo, the Doors, and Kanye West being just a handful of the offended who took legal action.
Hawley combatted the issue by reversing nearly the whole album and calling it γɘlwɒH ɘoႱ γɘlwɒH ɘoႱ, releasing this version to streaming on April 26th, 2019. He seemingly obtained the rights to the album in 2020 when the traditional version was re-released on November 11th with only the final song "White Rabbit" missing, but this has been re-taken down and re-uploaded numerous times.
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Another advertisement was released in April 2022 to address this, humorously paying an actor dressed as Jesus to explain that this was legal action taken by Spotify. Alongside this, two new Tally Hall demos were added to the live performance and demo compilation Admittedly Incomplete Demos, which features the band's 2019 single and cover "Just a Friend", available as a bonus on re-issues of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.
Other oddities have occurred with the musician's account, with various singles such as "Special" disappearing and unofficial fan media appearing. A lot of the latter has to do with recent allegations against him, leading angry fans to hack his pages. Fellow band member Andrew Horowitz publicly explained on X that Hawley has battled mental illness, with his behavior worsening over time.
We don’t condone his actions. All we can say is, don’t engage. You’re not communicating with Tally Hall Joe of old. We're genuinely sad to have to share this about our friend, but we don’t feel we have a choice. Sorry to those who are disappointed and those who have been hurt.
— Andrew Horowitz (@adhorowi) August 15, 2023
Joe Hawley's reputation has been somewhat muddied by these events. However, his musical legacy from the early 2000s to the late 2010s remains a powerful statement of his creative talent and skill, with the ever-growing fanbase being a testament to it. Joe Hawley Joe Hawley is currently available in places such as Spotify, but don't expect it to be there forever.
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