The Honeydogs - Love & Cannibalism (Review)

The Honeydogs are back. Four years after What Comes After comes ... Love & Cannibalism.  Adam Levy and his band recorded the album at The Pearl Studio in Minneapolis with producer John Fields (Semisonic, Rooney). Love & Cannibalism will be out April 16, 2016.

The album opens with a straight rocker: Vermillion Billows (Shouldn't Take It So Hard). Devices sums up classic Honeydogs sound with soul and jazz influences. Art & Vandalism goes into your ears and gets stuck in your brain (careful!) - it's such an ear-worm. Wheels has a classic (maybe 1970s) touch - the ending is magnificent. Gorgeous harmonies accompany Left Alone. Yet another bad-ass ear-worm. 

And then comes Sandstorm: My gosh - this is such a strong song. By the way: the intro reminds me of Bleu's Redhead. Again a hard rocking track: Blue-Backed Speller. The guitar work is stunning, reminds me sometimes of Brian May's Queen sound. 

Look Through The Sun (Photokeratits),Arguing With Fiction and Ordinary Legs are instant Honeydogs classics. I rest my case.  
The record finishes with a slightly seldom kind of album ending song: Little Sister is so positive - or better: it just makes you happy. The track mixes upbeat elements (I LOVE the chorus) with Caribbean sound.

For me Love & Cannibalism is the counterpart to Adam Levy's Naubinway from 2015. While Naubinway is sometime hard to get through because of its meaning (which is reflected in every song), Love & Cannibalism is straight, positive and full of joy.
Just to make sure: Don't get me wrong about Naubinway - I love the record (see my Top 10 list of 2015).

In my opinion there is not a single filler or skippable song on Love & Cannibalism. Every songs stands on his own. This may be one of the best things you can say about a record.

 

Listen (and watch the video) to "Arguing With Fiction" here:

You can and would do well to buy Love & Cannibalism at Bandcamp after its mid-April 2016 release.