Album Review: Black Honey – Black Honey
Black Honey
Released 21st September 2018
Words: Gary Lambert
Christmas Day happens once every year so you don’t have that long to wait. The first time I saw Black Honey perform live, it was three years ago. It has been an excruciating wait for their debut album to be released with every single dropped a temptress of a track building up the desire and excitement. Friday 21 September was when it finally reached the ears of the world. Friday 21 September 2018 will forever stay in my memory for that reason.
What do you get for your money with Black Honey’s eponymous debut? And it is going to be your money as you are going to go to HMV and buy a copy like your parents did when Definitely Maybe or Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not were released. It will not sell in those sort of volumes because records just don’t do that level in these days, but it deserves to.
I don’t want to run through the album track by track as I feel like I would be ruining the surprise for your ears and to bias your mind somehow. There’ll be at least five people who will read this and hate the album just because someone has said it is good, but they’ll come around. Apart from the fourth person out of the five as they will like jazz.
Black Honey is a night out in musical form. And not a night out where you meet your girlfriend’s parents and have a lovely meal in a restaurant that has been reviewed very highly on TripAdvisor. No, this is the soundtrack of a night out where you forget about having pre-drinks in your mate’s flat, but hit the first bar you can and say to the barman “give me Tequila” before dancing, debauchery, and disco necking. The album sounds of packed gay bars, sticky-floored indie clubs, and singing along with your friends the first time you have a house party before the neighbours call the police.
It was a perfect piece of promotion to choose to go with Midnight as the big release before the album as that sound of pop and dirty rock is the motif of the album. For those who like a reference point, I will say for you to imagine Katy Perry fronting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This is indie/alternative club sex music that has something for everybody.
I’ll say this to the band, Black Honey, it’s not just God and Buddha who love you. We all do, and we are so proud of you.
Listen to Black Honey here:
