Blackheart Honeymoon - Mountains Speak
- Written by Rob Crozier
With the country scene receiving a reinvention via the folk or Americana boom, it’s rather pleasing to find a new band that base themselves in the older traditions of the genre.
Blackheart Honeymoon hail from Seattle and class themselves as a “folk-rock quintet”. After an initial EP release in 2013, the band did a bit of reforming to reach the current line-up, and are now ready for their first full album release. Mountains Speak is a twelve track album, and follows on from the band’s success in embedding itself in Seattle’s vibrant live music scene.
The band are a no nonsense country band. Setting themselves up in the tradition, and they obviously draw huge influence from the likes of Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. However, the actual outcome and the band’s sound is more of a feeling in the modern tradition, alongside the likes of Ryan Adams or Seattle’s other folk darlings Fleet Foxes.
The opening track ‘Mountain Speak’ sets out their intention early on in a classic country track. However, ‘Bodies’ brings a more modern sound to the proceedings with beautiful harmonies and melodies from lead singer Ian Prebo backed by Adrienne Marie. Along with the traditional, subtle guitar sounds, the band has brought a fuzzy, modern twang. This blend of old meets new allows their sound to display a fresh new quality.
>’Erskine Proxy’ goes further in enhancing the qualities of this group with a more complex take on a standard country structure. Set apart from the usual tales of the lonesome heart this track does a bit of self-diagnosis en route to providing some enlightenment:
”I keep wasting time telling people how I feel / Spending too much time telling them how I felt”
The rest of the album moves along easily enough, with ‘Can’t & Won’t’ and ‘Wishing & Hoping’ providing good, staple country tracks without offering anything too different.
However, towards the end of the album, a few tracks emerge and change the tempo and style somewhat. ‘Love It All’ provides a bit more grit and displays the group’s more rocker side. This is continued with the excellently titled ‘We All Must Sometimes Stand Naked’.
These tracks also display the band’s ability to carve out the transition from straight-up country to the more complex Americana or folk-rock, to give them their new, trendier terms. Whatever the genre is called, the group have more than displayed their ability to create a new album which adds to the rich canon of country rock-folk… or whatever you want to call it. We wish them lots of success in the future.