The Great Nihilistic Songbook: Black Honey’s 4th era ‘Soak’
The Brighton band return with their fourth cinematic album.
★★★★☆
Photo: Frank Fieber
The group’s fourth album is an overdue return from one of British indie rock’s best independents, full of attitude and indifference, all set to a crunchy alt-rock soundtrack.
In an Instagram story post from the band, Black Honey said they ‘aren’t for the masses and the people who don’t get it’. But, after seven years, three studio albums and packed-out shows across the UK, there’s no reason they’re not already British rock royalty. Not afraid to draw on personal experiences like sobriety and mental health, frontwoman Izzy B. Phillips and her group have put out banger after banger, from the ‘80s-influenced pop rock of their self-titled debut, through to deliciously alternative Written and Directed, and 2023’s all-killer-no-filler suite, A Fistful of Peaches. 2025 ushers in a fourth album for the band and with it, a new era.
And this new era opens with Insulin, the perfect introduction to the latest chosen colour of Black Honey’s swaggering, tobacco-chewing chameleon. It sets the scene; a clattering piece of modern-day grunge rock, unapologetic in its .50-calibre drumbeat and ghostly vocals from Phillips. At two-and-a-half minutes, it’s the shortest offering here, true to the title; a short stab to reignite your veins.
There’s a melancholic indie rocker follow-up in Dead, packed with distorted guitar and an early noughties feel. With one of the most explosive choruses on the album, it’ll be a live favourite in no time.
Dead — a melancholic indie rocker with lots of distorted guitar. One of the catchiest and most explosive choruses on the album, and will no doubt become a live favourite. Psycho, meanwhile, was the lead single from the album and features one of Black Honey’s most signature lines to date, “Have you ever kissed a psycho / floating on a lilo…” Three tracks in and there’s talk of death, intravenous solutions and Norman Bates. Yikes.
Phillips has said Carroll Avenue is possibly the best track she’s ever written, and sure to be another fan fave in the same way the group’s closer from their debut, Corrine, has become. Both tracks are tinctured with regret and acquiescence, and both are excellent testaments to the maturity of the group’s songwriting.
The album’s title track harks back to the band’s Written & Directed days. It’s a shootout in the desert sun, a Midwestern bar brawl; lowdown, dirty riffs and layered, messy vocals. Neurotic rock for the masses. Familial, enjoyable rockers continue in Sad Sun and — possibly the highlight of Black Honey’s fourth era — Shallow. The latter is 21st-century disassociation set to pre-showdown hype and molasses-thick rhythm.
What follows is a slew of album tracks, the standouts of which include a defiant Slow Dance (“You’re so neurotypical / But I’m creative / You say I’m unpredictable/ But I can’t fake it”) and twisted surf-rocker To the Grave. It’s closer, Medication, is the antithesis of Insulin, a four-minute, orchestral refusal of all the pills and prescriptions. It’s Phillips reflecting on the tribulations of navigating the world when you’re a little different from the norm.
In Soak, it’s clear Phillips has once again looked inward for Black Honey’s most personal record yet. There’s the darkness of a troubled mind behind every chord, a struggle to reconcile the creative’s dream with an industry and a world steeped in cruelty. But, once again, its four members have grappled with nihilism and worked it to their advantage, concentrating every doubt, every fear, every anxiety dream into crunching riffs, jeering hooks and deliciously cool alt-rock tracks.
In Slow Dance, Phillips muses she’d “rather be invisible than overrated”. In Soak, Black Honey are quite obviously neither. They’ve hit their Goldilocks zone, performing well-crafted, teeth-cutting songs to the new and faithful alike, and having a damn time doing it. It’s a new era for the band, but once again, they’ve proven they’re rulers of the indie rock scene. Bow down or be torn apart.
Soak is out now via Foxfive Records.