Honeychurch – Makes Me Feel Better
The aptly named Honeychurch creates music that flows with a languid warmth (the honey part), while also projecting an introspective stillness (the church part). To use more musical touchstones, this Doyles-town, Pennsylvania, band blends influences of Neil Young, Nick Drake, Mojave 3 and the Byrds to make gorgeous pastoral music.
The two tunes that bookend the disc, Fields On Fire and Honey-church Loves You, attest to the bands strengths. The opening number is a hauntingly spare agrarian ballad full of mournful pedal steel and rich harmonies. The closing track reveals the bands poppier side and ends the album on a buoyant note.
The group, led by the husband-and-wife team of Shilough and Larissa Hopwood, fills the rest of the disc with a number of memorable songs. The spare yet vividly drawn The Dinner Song feels like a long-lost folk ballad. Pedal steel, strings and harmonies combine to give Chancery Lane a lush, organic orchestral feel. The centerpiece is the stirring Second Chance; sounding reminiscent of Peter Brunt-nell, Shilough lays bare his emotions on this aching love song.
The discs several cover tunes fit in seamlessly with the originals. Larissa takes over lead vocals on Neil Youngs Birds, which precedes a Nick Drake-comes-to-L.A. rendition of Dolly Partons Lonely Coming Down. Larissas lovely, whispery singing also gives Ralph Stanleys The Darkest Hour an ethereal quality. With their low-key yet uplifting sound, Honeychurch live up to their album title.