ALBUM REVIEW: Amanda Anne Platt and The Honeycutters Cover Vast Ground on ‘The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea’

They keep saying the age of the full album is nearing its end. But despite releasing two singles a month over the past year, Amanda Anne Platt knew her latest batch of songs belonged together in one place, as one story. The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, a double album from Platt and her magnificent band The Honeycutters, is vast. It moves between coasts, from Platt’s origins in New York to the desert of California, the bright lights of Dallas and the chilly Hudson River. The most discernable textural difference between the two halves comes in the form of a slightly twangier groove on The Devil, but these dual sides are undoubtedly in conversation with one another.

Platt’s golden, full-throated vocals are primed for the emotional belters of The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, particularly on the latter half. If the first half has you cutting a rug, burning rubber on the road as you speed off into a sunset, the back half will have you turning around and tenderly making your way back home. Still, the soft strums of later entry “This Night” and the wistful ones of album opener “New York” walk hand in hand. In both, Platt mourns a place she once called home, and in both, the details are rich enough to place you right alongside her.

No matter where she takes you, Platt never skimps on setting the scene: the feeling of the road beneath her, the music playing in the background, the way the light fades. She captures it all unflinchingly in her songwriting, whether she’s exploring nostalgia, faith, memories, or a changing world around her. In the sweetness or in the grit, Platt remains a formidable storyteller.