PACKS – ‘Melt the Honey’ album review: a record as smooth and sweet as its namesake
THE SKINNY: There are few things more satisfying than an album name that entirely encapsulates the music it accompanies. It’s a rare feat, but PACKS seem to have mastered the art of titling with their latest offering. A whimsical collection of tracks charting Madeline Link’s love for gloopy sweeteners, dubious tree-climbing, and fever dreams, Melt the Honey is a record as sonically smooth and sweet as its namesake.
With a set of trusted sonic collaborators in tow, Link ventured to a house with “no straight lines” in Xalapa, Mexico, set on forging the second PACKS album to be released within a year. The warped warmth of their surroundings facilitated creativity, while Link found lyrical inspiration in small details like honey-making techniques and big emotions like love.
The resulting record is one of the most endearing efforts in contemporary indie. As the genre has become a catch-all term for any and all music driven by a guitar, it’s increasingly difficult for bands to cut through the noise, much less to cut through it twice in one year. But PACKS have harnessed a consistently honeyed sound that sets them apart from the rest, effortlessly cool without losing that warm, gooey emotion at its centre.
While Melt the Honey may go down just as easily as the substance it borrows its name from, there’s an undeniable edge to it too, one that might resemble the likes of indie favourites Alex G or Wednesday. In reality, PACKS have honed a sound that is so unique it defies comparison. The record is a world of its own, one that glitches as much as it glistens and wavers as much as it warms.
For fans of: walking around holding a skateboard you can’t ride, the honeymoon phase, and reading about old inventions on Wikipedia.
A concluding comment from Tom’s mother: “Went through the whole thing not understanding a single word, thought it was French in fact, but found it pleasing enough all the same. Quite a feat really.”
Melt the Honey track by track:
Release date: 19 January | Producer: | Label: Fire Talk Records
’89 Days’: A tone-setting opener as gooey and restorative as a pack of blackcurrant Soothers. Link layers dreamy “ahh”s with her soon-to-be familiar drawl and lazy guitar instrumentals. (3/5)
‘Honey’: A song just as sugary and smooth as its namesake, with all the buzz of the bees that made it. Inspired by the honey-preserving habits Link picked up during a stint in a Chilean beach town, ‘Honey’ is just as considerate and wholesome as the story behind it. (3/5)
‘Pearly Whites’: Dipping her toes into slightly darker territory, ‘Pearly Whites’ combines Link’s newly drawn-out, hissing vocals with soundscapes that drone and vibrate a la Alex G’s House of Sugar era. It’s Melt the Honey at its best so far. (4.5/5)
‘HFCS’: Before you try to adjust to the gritty cavities of Link’s pearly whites, though, she returns to more playful territory with ‘HFCS’. “High-fructose corn syrup,” she sings, clarifying the acronym in the song’s title and demonstrating that her love for gloopy sweeteners is not limited to honey. (3/5)
‘AmyW’: For ‘AmyW’, Link puts vocals and lyrics on the backburner for an instrumental filled to the brim with murmuring guitars and thumping drums. It’s a noisy yet comforting wall of noise, inviting you to lean against it. (3.5/5)
‘Take Care’: At the record’s mid-point, we find Link at her most vulnerable. Her tendency for self-neglect is placed in direct opposition to her craving to care for others. “With me, I don’t take care, but with you, I will, I swear,” she sings over swirling twangs. (4/5)
‘Her Garden’: Delving further into self-surveillance, Link tries to look inwards once more, but her explorations are complicated by Dutch angles and concave chests. Her only certainty, once more, seems to be her lover: “All my callouses are craving fever dreams, as strange as it seems, about you”. (3/5)
‘Paige Machine’: Inspired by the failed invention of the Paige Compositor, there’s a trial-and-error ethos to ‘Paige Machine’, a continual yearning for something new. Just beneath Link’s repeated declarations of “Gotta restart,” the soundscape flits between dreamy sighs and low murmurs. (4/5)
‘Missy’: ‘Missy’ opens with a cough, as if the song is begging to return to that honeyed healing that permeated the first half of the record. Though it contains some of those sweeter, smaller moments – a tree climb, chipped nail polish – it also veers into shadowier territory. “What was that noise?” guest Spanish vocalist Lupita Rico wonders. (3.5/5)
‘Trippin’: As the album begins to draw to a close, Link finds an unexpected return to sunlight. Time is slipping, and she’s tripping on the soles of her shoes, but it’s not all bad. “It’s all hell-bent, but it’s heaven sent for you,” she decides between shrugged sighs. (3.5/5)
‘Time Loop’: PACKS’ warm optimism is cemented in the final moments of Melt the Honey, in which Link repeats the words, “It’s not hopeless yet,” over increasingly familiar instrumentation. It’s longing and fulfilment all at once, a whimsical feeling the album seems to have mastered without ever losing its cool. (4/5)
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