A Fistful Of Peaches is yet another triumph from Black Honey
"A Fistful Of Peaches"
Black Honey, the Brighton quartet fronted by one of music’s most fierce musicians Izzy Bee Phillips, have stamped and stormed their way into everyone’s minds with their insatiable indie rock cut with ferocious, grunge licks.
Their third album comes as yet another triumph following the conceptual universe of Written & Directed, and the breakout majesty of their self-titled debut. Sitting at a dozen tracks long, A Fistful Of Peaches travels through their most personal and open narratives to date, utilising Phillips' dizzying vocals and their woozy, infectious, staple bass lines. Their latest record was preceded with the release of a handful of singles, “Up Against It,” “OK,” “Charlie Bronson,” and “Out Of My Mind” – each thrilling in their own right.
Starting off as they mean to go on, and in their usual RIOT GRRRL fashion, album opener “Charlie Bronson” acts as a musical middle finger to the stereotypes around women not being 'allowed' to be angry due to the connotations with being 'unfeminine'. Through the track, Phillips explores releasing her anger in therapy and coming to terms with the fact that you’re allowed to divulge going 'off the rails', with lyrics such as “Big smile just like Harley Quinn” and “Sign a postcard from my padded cell.”
Similarly, exploring the same vein of mental health (alongside “Rockbottom”), “Out Of My Mind” discusses the experiences of dissociation and feelings of vulnerability, where its becoming quickly clear that A Fistful Of Peaches is an homage to being open about your struggles and steeped in self-reflection.
Stepping back from the present, “Up Against It” is a heavily emotional look-back on childhood. Backed by emotion-fuelled basslines, the lead singers’ vocals deliver heartfelt lyrics in an ode to her younger self: “Give yourself a break kid.” Whereas, sitting on the other end of the genre-spectrum, “Weirdos” enlists the aid of insistent drums and reverbed vocals to deliver on of the punchiest tracks on the album – a “song for the weirdos.”
The album, as a whole, is as Izzy says; “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 becomes part of normal.” A Fistful Of Peaches is a refreshingly honest offering from the indie rock scene, and Black Honey make for the perfect couriers.
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