Black Honey – ‘A Fistful of Peaches’
When Brighton-based band Black Honey, led by enigmatic Izzy Bee Phillips, released their self-titled debut EP in 2014, they quickly became staples of the British indie scene. In the following years, the group extensively toured festivals and supported established acts such as Catfish and the Bottlemen and Royal Blood before finally releasing their debut album in 2018.
The band has consistently demonstrated a talent for crafting a sound that reflects a rich visual world, taking cues from the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Lana Del Rey. In 2021, Black Honey’s second album, Written & Directed, shot to number seven in the UK Album Charts, further cementing them as icons of the indie scene. Now, the band has returned with A Fistful of Peaches, their most intimate album yet.
Although Phillips has been open about her mental health struggles and ADHD online, A Fistful of Peaches sees the singer address these issues in song like never before, inspired by her experience of intense therapy. She explained, “I’ve had to be more honest and vulnerable with myself. Most of this record is me trying to figure out where the line is between normal mental health and when you’re having breakdowns every day that then become part of normal.”
On the new album, Black Honey leans into their experience as a popular live act, prioritising anthemic choruses and hooks, often utilising a building verse that explodes into a moshable frenzy of erratic guitars. Opening track ‘Charlie Bronson’ sees Phillips channel her anger, describing the song as “the biggest middle finger” to the fact that “women aren’t allowed to be angry – you’re allowed to be upset, but to be angry is seen as really unfeminine.” It’s a powerhouse start to the record, immediately followed by ‘Heavy’, which maintains a formulaic structure that tires quickly, as do cliched lyrics such as “My head is the enemy.”
However, on ‘Up Against It’, Phillips’ exploration of mental health issues is much more sophisticated and moving, as she sings, “Give yourself a break, kid/ You were up against it, don’t you know?” – lyrics that are sure to resonate with many listeners. Meanwhile, ‘Rock Bottom’ gives fans the most succinct taste of the classic Black Honey sound, propelled by a moody bassline.
Infectious drums open ‘Cut The Cord’, which sounds like a slice of early 2000s indie pop that wouldn’t sound out of place playing over the credits of a classic teen movie. On ‘I’m a Man’, meanwhile, Phillips flips the narrative to sing as a sexual predator, a way of processing her trauma from sexual assault. “It’s that whole idea of you can’t immediately spot who these people are, they don’t just jump out of bushes,” she explained. The sweeping declarations of ‘I’m a man/ ‘Cause I can” make the track a powerful highlight.
Another highlight is the mellow ‘Nobody Knows’, which incorporates echoes of shoegaze in its slow, hazy guitars. The track feels like a static dream, fully enveloping the listener in its melancholic fuzz. Sadly, it is followed by the album’s worst song, ‘Weirdos’, which takes a leaf out of YUNGBLUD’s book on how to write cringe-inducing lyrics about not fitting in (although it is considerably more bearable than anything he has ever released). Lines such as, “This is a song for the weirdos, the antiheroes/ Won’t fit in if you try/ A song for the freaks and the scumbags/ Good kids gone bad” have a nice sentiment behind them, but you can’t help but wince.
Luckily, Black Honey redeem themselves with the hard-hitting arena-filling penultimate track ‘Tombstone’. A Fistful of Peaches might be the band’s bravest effort yet, and Phillips’ lyrical honesty is admirable – no doubt many listeners will find solace in her words. Yet, the record fails to reach the sonic heights of their previous two albums, often falling into uninspired, cyclical melodies. That’s not to say that Black Honey haven’t created several fantastic indie-pop cuts that will certainly find a home on festival stages this summer.
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