REVIEW: Honey Creek - 'A Whole Year in Transit'
Written by Andy Katz
I have to admit it, I absolutely looked past Honey Creek just based on their name. I mean you have to agree, it’s another pop punk band probably named after a street sign for some cul-de-sac, in some random part of town, with the entire town surrounding a 24-hour Walmart with no shortage of drunk dudes jamming out to the latter half of War is the Answer in the parking lot *takes a deep breath.* However, I was wrong. Like, really really wrong. Honey Creek is poised for breaking the mold in the current pop-punk scene with their debut LP, A Whole Year in Transit. From start to finish, this record played out like the first time I saw Superbad when I was in high school. It went by so fast that I had to restart it from the beginning to make certain I didn’t gloss over any details.
The record is immediately self-reflective with “another wasted Wednesday night / on a house on the east side,” found on the track, “Fast Times at Farwell House.” It foreshadows a central theme of this record that revolves around the recklessness and heedless charm of college youth.
“The Time It Took” was a single off this record, and it’s super solid. I’m a sucker for whipped out, bendy guitar leads that embellish choppy, animated rhythms. Dangerously similar to deep cuts on The Upsides (in a good way), this track brought me back to my freshman year at college, playing inebriated rounds of Super Smash Bros with a handle of Smirnoff Green Apple to my left, and a half finished Quick Check “hero” (hey, i'm from Brooklyn, that’s the term for sandwich) to my right.
The pop-punk spirit continues, gathering vivacity with tracks like “Wish Bone” and “Vibe Check.” Both are super bouncy, blending noteworthy hooks and expeditious, impressive vocal patterns that compliment mid-bar guitar leads similar to bands like Roam and Seaway. The chorus of “Wish Bone” plays well with these attributes, continuing that acclaimed style of pop-punk writing that’s been a foundation for the genre for the last decade or so.
I do have another confession to make about how I listen to new records: if the final track is absolutely killer, it showcases the band’s ability to tie up loose ends, an unappreciated and undervalued quality that always leaves a lasting impression on me. “A Whole Year in Transit,” the title track, is the focal point of the entire record, in spite of being the last song. Deep diving into more minute detail, the last minute and twenty five seconds of this song, and of the record, embodies the ingenuity of Honey Creeks’s ability to write a progression that constructs a foundation, allowing the song to culminate to a climax, and then recede without losing steam. That’s tough to do. The energy of the record is present until it’s last note. If it was up to me, every band in this genre should aim to do that. I want to be captivated until it’s all over. Honey Creek certainly does that here. Job well done.