Friday 21 September 2018

EP Review: Four More From...by Honey Moon (2018) (Heist or Hit Records)


Honey Moon make you need to be in warm climes. They have that strange laconic 'urban surf pop' vibe that exfoliates all things haze, gaze and marijuana from that distinctive american coastal music essence and replace it by planting it's flag in the gloriously crooning hinterland that is equidistant between all manner of 60's melodies, fabulous over produced sophisti-pop and the sort of occasional sun drenched jangle-pop that gives you permission to sweat and get your pasty white legs out in a pair of shorts...It is music to sit in a British pub beer garden to, on one of our three days of summer sun and drink ice cold foreign lager.



The opening and indeed stand out track, (Why do you Think You're So) Special? (see below), dances around the above flag with refreshing immediacy with the opening, almost Motown bass riff, promising a foundation for some sort of salacious melody. This is duly delivered with a sophistipop flourish that makes frequent visits to an exuberant brass section as occasional jangled riffs slip into the musical landscape in a manner that confronts 'all the pretty that has gone before', thus adding just that inference of inception that all good music needs to prevent it from becoming a pastiche of its influences. 


 (Why do you Think You're So) Special?




Once the flag is planted Honey Moon rarely move away it. Why should they, considering the brevity of the EP release and the vibe that they have perfected? However for some reason this welcome and intentional uniformity never threatens to become tedious as each track, whilst shrouded in the formulaic, has it's own personality that is largely created by the superb vocals of Jack Slater Chandler's overtly luscious croon that acts as a foundation fabric for  the various 60's and jangle aesthetic to be woven into.

This is best seen in the other single from the release, Yours, Girl, (see below), where the front man visits significantly lower octaves in the opening verse that are suddenly interrupted with a fine display of his vocal versatility in the chorus, as he visits the sort of high notes that only several tonnes of estrogen injections might ordinarily induce. This vocal dynamism and apposite antagonism is all delivered with a smooth rotund croon that could seduce the panties off a nun at 40 paces.




Effectively Honey Moon do not serve their pop in a manner that would usually pique my interest, but there is just something so salubrious, warm and almost decadent about this London based four piece that makes them almost irresistible.

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