Brighton four-piece, Black Honey return with their second album Written & Directed.
Since the release of their eponymous 2018 album, they have supported Queens of the Stone Age and fellow Brightonians Royal Blood, played Glastonbury and with their distinctive aesthetic, have graced Milan Fashion Week and the cover of NME. The group pay as much attention to creating a retro-cinematic visual identity as creating energetic rock music, drawing inspiration from Tarantino movies and modern feminist ideals. Having released two singles Beaches and Run For Cover last summer, the covid-delayed long player has been long anticipated.
Written & Directed sees Black Honey go darker and heavier on all fronts, without losing the plaudit-winning hooks and sass of their previous outing. They’ve swapped out the vocoders for fuzz pedals and serious riffs as well as collaborating with the likes of Carl Barat (The Libertines), Olly Burton (The Prodigy) and Mike Kerr (Royal Blood) to create a rich and coherent collection of songs.
The opening track “I Like the Way You Die” is full neo-noir, replete violent imagery as front-woman Izzy B Phillips plays the role of vampy femme-fatale. Her voice is luscious yet chimey, not unlike Gwen Stefani in her No Doubt days as she issues a menacing apology to would be suitors “Sorry, love is not for free, I’ll lock you up and I’ll eat the key/ the monster in the dark is me”.
We heard the second song “Run for Cover” last year. It is filled with frenetic energy and sees the band juxtaposing male and female perspectives on the complicated nuances of sex and relationships. It’s a romping bass-riff led number with collaborator Mike Kerr’s (Royal Blood) influence clearly audible. Lead single ‘Beaches’ is a more playful number, with hand-clap rhythmic loops and horns. The vocals take on a huskier, coy tone as the chorus refrain “On the beaches/ On the beach”. In keeping with the album’s nostalgic Americana vibe, there's surfy vibrato on Chris Parker's guitar, it is more Venice Beach, than Brighton Pier.
‘Believer’ continues the summer heat and seaside sounds. The brass section returns but doesn’t detract or overwhelm the track. The subtle use of additional instrumentation and effects create an accomplished cohesive sound in bitesize slices. The tracks on this album deliver their punch in around the three-minute mark. Slow number ‘I Do It To Myself’ is the longest on the record at 3 minutes 37 with a hazy dreamish-ness created by punctuating percussion with a reverb and phaser layered synth providing a backdrop for Phillips to take on a more introspective and vulnerable persona. This is quickly shaken off in the raucous ‘Disinfect’, easily the bands heaviest track to date. The album winds down with ‘Gabrielle’, where the narrator, Philips, channels mournful lyrics akin to Dolly Parton on Jolene in asking her love rival to “give him back to me”.
Written & Directed is a stylish, carefully constructed record. It is fun and kitsch but also swings punches at the patriarchy in a way that will resonate with many right now. Black Honey have an unusually clear vision of what they want to say, how they want to look and how they want to sound and in doing so have created a compelling second album.
Review by Dan Ryan
