THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Black Honey’s third studio album A Fistful Of Peaches is the Brighton indie-rockers’ most personal, revealing album yet — a record that embraces every side: The palatable and the monstrous, the hopeful and the pitch black.
“If the vibe of (the band’s second album) Written & Directed was creating this whole Tarantino world and this safe space of me almost refusing help and saying I was fine, then with this album it’s the opposite,” says singer-guitarist Izzy Baxter Phillips. “Lockdown had happened, I’d had two years of not writing anything and feeling like my entire purpose had gone down the drain, I’d been in intense therapy which was exhausting, and what came out was just me regurgitating things from my entire life and building my brain cells back to how they should be. I’ve had to be more honest and vulnerable with myself, but I feel like I’d be disservicing anyone who spends their time and passion and energy into this project to not fucking unveil it all.”
Where Written & Directed showcased a band able to dip into seemingly disparate genres and pull them together into their own, its followup feels more pointed and streamlined. The almighty album opener Charlie Bronson — the first track they shared from the album — is possibly the weightiest, most gnarly track the quartet have penned to date. Then came the woozily anthemic Out Of My Mind showcasing a different side to the band’s capabilities. They are still able to swing from poppier dynamics on Cut The Cord into a full on mosh-inducing chorus on Tombstone, but uniting them all with a more solidified outlook than ever. On the sweeping, Killers-style soar of OK, the singer looks outwards to a friend in need, craving a place filled with less worry.
As Izzy summarises: “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. I thought everyone cried everyday, I thought everyone had traumatic flashbacks and nightmares. This album is like, what the fuck? I didn’t have to have that? It’s like opening a new door to a future that I didn’t think possible, but it’s also soured by the realisation that I had to suffer through so much that I shouldn’t have had to. I don’t know what I’ll make next but it won’t be where I was when I made this.”
