Standing at the Sky's Edge is the seventh studio album from English musician Richard Hawley, released in the UK on 7 May 2012 and in the US on 28 August 2012.

"[6] In an interview with The Guardian, Hawley stated, "I don't really write political songs but like most right-minded people I'm angry at what's happening here in Britain.

BBC Music said that "After a decade of... the Roy Orbison stylings of several critically acclaimed and, latterly, commercially successful albums, Sheffield's most unlikely pop star is back, and this time he's rocking out...

By employing hard-rocking, sometimes spacey psychedelia (gloriously) to express the anger he feels as he watches the hard-won gains of history being damaged and destroyed in unsavory ways, Hawley creates an essential listen.

"[1] The Independent stated that "Richard Hawley has upped his game considerably on his first album for Parlophone, leaving behind his urbane, rockabilly-tinged retro-nuevo style for a full-blooded immersion in ringing psychedelic rock.

"[17] The Guardian noted that "the musical shift of Standing at the Sky's Edge is a hazardous strategy, not least because it plays against a lot of Hawley's strengths.

It is still after all a pretty sophisticated piece of retro music-making – only rather than painstakingly emulating the production values of the late 1950s and early 1960s, he's embraced the echoes, middle eastern modality and wah-wah effects of someone hellbent on creating a heavy psychedelic guitar record.

"[6] NME felt that "Hawley has always had a telescopic view of rock history, discarding the modern pop frivolities of his guitar work with Longpigs and Pulp to record Mercury-nominated, string-shrouded albums... now he finally feels nostalgia's gotten old, and for this seventh album he's sacked the string section, fired up the psychedelic wah-wah and splurged on the nuclear sunset sounds of early Floyd, The Stooges, and – if we’re to allow him more modern references – early Verve and Spiritualized...

"[18] MusicOMH felt that "it's great to hear Richard Hawley expanding his horizons and there's a lot to enjoy in this album" but that "the overall result is not altogether satisfying: some of the tracks seem overlong, as if the temptation to thrown in just a few more special effects has taken over from crafting a coherent piece of music... if some of the sound could be better defined, and the special effects shaken on with a slightly lighter hand, it would be more coherent and ultimately more impressive".