Brian Fallon - Local Honey (March 27, 2020) Album • Page 20

I do wish there was a little more musical and melodic variety here, but in terms of lyrical songwriting, this is some of his best work.

 

The "watching you color with your brand new pajamas on" line was the one that did it for me.

 

Kinda wish there was another pure story-song like Vincent; that was not something I expected from him at all and I’d love to see him explore more storytelling like that in the future. A couple lines fall a little flat for me (I can’t help but think of how a writer like Jason Isbell would replace “I stabbed him once and I stabbed him again” with a much more subtle, evocative lyric) but in general I think it’s one of the best songs he’s written in quite some time.

 

All eight of these songs are fantastic, and I think the marriage of these songs from Brian Fallon with Peter Katis as the producer was absolute perfection.

My only criticism - and I hate to be that guy here - is that 8 short songs feels more like an EP to me than an album. I am fully aware of the fact that one of the greatest albums of all time has only 8 songs on it, and if this is the album as Brian Fallon sees it then I am going to trust him on it.

I guess if all of these songs were just him and an acoustic guitar or just him and piano I could see where he felt like going with 10-12 songs could be a lot and feel very samey, as he mentioned being cognizant of during the making of this as something he wanted to avoid - but to me these songs absolutely have a lot of really interesting things going on musically and sonically, certainly enough to support a few more songs.

 

8 songs and no filler is fine to me, i could probabbblyy whittle the last 2 albums down to 8 or 9 songs each if i really wanted to.

also Born To Run lets the comment slide................. this time

 

In fairness, it’s hard to compare Local Honey to other 8-song albums like Born to Run or like, Astral Weeks because those albums have some long-ass epics on them. Local Honey is definitely short....I just lean towards thinking he struck the right balance with 8.

Now, if it had 2 more songs like Vincent I could see it being an even better 10-song album — but two more lonesome yet hopeful love songs and I think it might outlast its welcome. But it’s so hard to gauge these kinds of things when you already know 3 or 4 of the 8 songs....so I’m curious to hear what more of the people who have resisted the singles think.

 

i havent listened to anything but "You Have Stolen My Heart" and I really only listened to it like twice, I don't even really remember how it goes lol. I will be going in almost entirely fresh tomorrow.

 

The very one I was referencing!!!

I do think the fact that I had already heard half of this album with 4 of the songs being released ahead of time is making it feel even shorter to me right now. I am gonna give it some time and some complete listens to let the whole thing sink in a little more. I agree, one or two more Vincent-like tracks would have been chef's kiss.

 

Feel you on that for sure — I’ve resigned to the fact that I have no willpower and will listen to any taste of the album they feed me. Just glad they didn’t do that thing where iTunes lets you play a 90 second clip of every song before it’s released (my first listen to Sleepwalkers was marred by my having heard a good portion of every song lol). This one certainly feels short to me because I’m playing the shit out of the new 4 and only listening to the singles when I do a full play-through. I think I’ll appreciate it even more once a great song like 21 Days doesn’t stick out to me because I’ve already heard it.

 

There's another album that just came out recently - Red Tail by Dave Simonett - and it is somewhat similar sonically, sort of subdued Americana / folky thing, and it is also only 8 songs. It doesn't feel as short to me. I think a huge part of that is that I did not hear a single note of that album ahead of time and was only able to listen to the whole thing at once when it was released. It also has a pretty long 6+ minute track in the middle.

My point here is that I recognize this is more a problem of my own lack of restraint in not being able to resist listening to the 4 pre-release tracks, although I did do a pretty good job of only listening to most of them once or twice and not playing them into the ground.

 

Same here. I made myself forget it was even coming out tomorrow to make it even more surprising.

 

Friends, you are stronger than I.

 

I made its this far without listening, and definitely wanted to have my first listen be the LP I pre-ordered. But I don’t have an email saying that’s on its way, and with his website now warning of potential delays, there’s no way I can hold out anymore.

 

This album feels like if you took the closing acoustic track from eight of your favorite albums and threw them on one LP.

Stripped back or not, doesn’t matter. Every single fucking time I am reminded he is my favorite songwriter currently going.

Not sure where this album will land in my rankings and I probably don’t like it nearly as much as Sleepwalkers or any TGA album, but right now it’s March and we are in a shit storm of a world. For 31 minutes I was able to replace this constant feeling of dread, sickness, and misery with feelings and thoughts of hope, summer, and better times. That’s all I can ask for right now.

 

Yeah, this album was really calming for me today. Think I listened like 10 times.

 

Fully expecting to like this more than his first 2 solo albums when I listen tomorrow.

 

Alright 3 listens down. This is great. I can’t say enough of how good the production on this is.

Still not going to be the first solo or TGA album I’ll reach for, but that’s ridiculously stupid expectations.

This is solid and I really needed more Brian Fallon in my life.

 

Even though I've listened repeatedly to the already songs, in the context of the whole album, I still can't get enough.

I thought Sleepwalkers was his best, but this just took that top spot.

 

I’m not gonna listen until my vinyl comes in which at this rate is hopefully Monday. Just feels right to hear it all for the first time there.

 

Love “When You’re Ready”

 

Yeah. This is nice. That opener really hit me. I feel like that’s a song every parent is going to get hit with.

 

Def at the bottom of his discography for me. Just don’t love this style out of him for an entire album. Second half of album seems stronger.

 

Lonely for you only is my early fav. Kinda surprised all the love for Vincent. On first listen I wasn’t blown away

 

I'm so glad he made this album. I've been hoping for a stripped down record from him at some point and this is even better than I could've hoped.

 

Definitely loving it more than I expected. Maybe it’s the situation we’re in right now but a stripped back album from Brian is absolutely what I needed.