Search - Voice of the Beehive :: Honey Lingers

Ben B. from SAN ANSELMO, CA
Reviewed on 2/6/2014...

great harmonies, catchy hooks, and uptempo numbers. One of my favorite groups.

Power pop with some harpoons against romance

Daniel J. Hamlow | Narita, Japan | 11/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first album was a fresh burst grinding guitar and power pop, and the loopy and colourful cover led people to believe that they were mindless pop. Wrongo! Ditto for Honey Lingers, where Tracy Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland are decked out in pink dresses resembling that worn by La Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
The same grinding guitars, drums, and power pop sound from Let It Bee are here, but the cynicism and stings have sharpened considerably in the areas of romance, and any idealist will die of acute poisoning upon hearing certain songs......such as "Monsters And Angels", where the protagonist is proud to be nobody's anything, be it "nobody's wife", "nobody's baby", "nobody's valentine", "nobody's pearl", and "nobody's mother." but there is a kind of escape clause from that affirmation when she says "then again maybe" This divided state of mind is elaborated thusly: "There's a peacefulness and a rage inside us all" and "there is ice and fire in every single heart." So this balanced neutrality is an answer? Interesting.Sharp riffs punctuate "Adonis Blue", with its ringing hard guitar. Definitely a girly song, but this song about one's ideal opposite whose mold they broke after his birth, someone "who's just as sad as me, but always smiling" is catchy enough.They do a decent cover of the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You", and love that fuzzy guitar and bass.However, the keyboards and hard guitar hooks in "Look At Me" is a scathing look at the Donahue/Oprah mentality of people trying to get attention, thinking they got problems, drama, stories no else has, and trying to outcompete others. "I really have a lot of pain to express" The songs wryly ends "The earth is drying. Planets are dying. Everybody is saying, "Yea, I know but look at me!" Why are people so parochial?"Beauty To My Eyes" is a mid-paced acoustic ballad spiced with some string synths in the chorus.With the cacophony of drums, guitars, and synths, "It's Just Like You" outdoes the rocking party of the B-52's "Love Shack." Silly but catchy rhymes and similes and opposite dynamics. "You're the plug and I'm the socket/I;m the moon and you're the rocket/you can sing it, you can talk it/you're the change in my back pocket" made me roll my eyes and shake my head in amusement. And what's with "I'll be your braille if you'll read me everynight"? Clever or silly?OK, I understand grown women being cynical about love but programming them when they're young tots? "Little Gods" has a Bangles-like melody and the title is what little girls should not treat little boys like because they don't keep promises. Nice song and melody though.

"I'm Shooting Cupid" is my favourite song here and further proof that Bryn and Belland have had one too many disappointing love experiences. The girls declare war thus: "Cupid you've got yourself a brand new enemy/it's time to get cruel/i'm calling a duel" Why? Because "You made me a loveless girl" they sing in the refrain. "To keep humans kind, I'm getting you from behind." Given their take that famous couples like Antony and Cleopatra and Adam and Eve should've been left alone, I wonder if they'll use a bazooka on Cupid. Yup! KABAM, there he goes in a shower of feathers!"Say It" describes that one needn't say one's feelings because "sometimes when you talk too much, the words get old and dusty" so there are other ways other than saying it. "I know something else we can do" she sings. Do I detect a knowing seductive wink in that line?This could be a "Perfect Place" if people who keep saying "I will change tomorrow" actually follow up on that, hence their borrowing a snatch of lyric from a song on Let It Bee: "I walk the earth my darling but I never feel at home."This must've had some kind of impact, as they came up with a third album, but the songwriting team of the girls and guitarist Mike Jones is a real asset here. The recurring anti-romance theme adds to the successfully power-pop formula. Another winner from the Beehive girls."

Pristine Pop

Chris S. | atlanta, ga United States | 09/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While their debut LET IT BEE was an auspicious pop intro peppered with a little power punk, HONEY LINGER chooses to focus on the "pop" more than the "punk", and in the process the sisters Belland produce a sophomore effort that artistically supercedes its' predecessor. Comparisons the girls garnered to the B-52s on the first album continue here, though as one reviewer said it would be doing the sisters a disservice to compare them to anyone--they definately march to the beat of their own drum. Would-be pop classics abound here, from the opening 'Monsters and Angels' to the closing 'A Perfect Place', with nary a misstep. In between, the sardonic wit exibited in their previous work is front and center, especially on charmingly goofy tracks like 'Adonis Blue' and 'Look At Me'. The failure by many to categorize their music ultimately hurt them, I think, which is a shame because this was one of the best pop albums to come out of the early nineties. If you want further proof, just go to track three--who else could cover David Cassidy's bubblegum anthem 'I Think I Love You' and actually make it sound like a great song?"