Album Reviews: Loaded Honey, Yuma Abe, Caroline

Loaded Honey – Love Made Trees
Essex/London, England

Through some initial tracks, Loaded Honey can at times feel like it’s poised to be Jungle’s own answer to what would happen if they took all their influences and tried to record a retro album like them, sans more modern sampling and instrumentation. Though the album is stacked with more slow jams exploring small performances and the power of quiet songs than explosive throwback R&B pop, there’s some real power lying under the hood of this first Jungle spin-off project. There’s an effortless gloss and vintage glide to “Don’t Speak,” with Lydia Kitto and J Lloyd (Josh Lloyd-Watson) merging impassioned performances with sublime production for a track that feels ripped from classic hits while still having its own voice in the game. Taking a more sample-hip hop feeling, “Bullet” surrounds itself in lush lo-fi tones and lets handfuls of harmonies dance around your ears in a mesmerizing motion. The silky magic shines on “Tokyo Rain,” as every piano line twinkles like a star, Kitto’s vocals burst to the point of a blown-out, euphoric roar, and the strings gain a heavenly ecstasy in their rich-yet-sizzling timbres. The most infectious of the crawling gems of the record comes through “Only Gonna Let You Down” as the lead hook lets loose so many delicious and slowly warped harmonic answers that it transforms into a wholly new range of sound as it stacks them higher and higher into a choral mountain.

Kevin O’Meara – No Trespassing! (Single)
Montreal/Ottawa

In the latest from their sprawling year-long monthly album release saga, Kevin O’Meara’s latest record pulls you into a world of ethereal folk. “Starseeds” matches fantastical visions with a travelling folk chug, and the accordion-esque tones bring us out to sea, as the guitars and drums start the churning waters. Between the swirling guitar lines and the singing saw, “Raf Finn” gives a magical force to its folk legend, transforming its title character into more of a spirit than simply a person. Using the format in a cheeky way to make an all too necessary point, “Galen Weston Blues” lets the spot-on blues runs on the slide give O’Meara the power to take Weston and frankly most grocery stores to task for their flagrant price gouging and product shrinking, which has only accelerated since the pandemic.  There’s a strange power in the keyboard line of “Like the First Time,” that perfectly straddles a kind of 8-bit charm and earthy weight to create a sound that feels pulled out of nature and time.

Caroline – Caroline 2
London, England

Pushing the boundaries of experimental folk-tinged music, Caroline crafts tracks with acoustic charms that slowly burst into dynamic production tapestries. Though it can initially feel like tumbling chaos, “Total Euphoria” slowly blooms into a glorious, sunburnt cry into the morning, with horns and soft vocals moving with the grimier elements to create an ecstatic kick towards enjoying well…it all. Turning cracks to strings into something that sounds akin to wood stretching, “Song Two” takes a band warmup feeling and morphs it into a tantalizing musical experiment that works in its ebb and flow. With perhaps one of the greatest meta artist features of all time, Caroline Polachek appears on “Tell Me I Never Knew That” for a dense set of folky vocals that layer into each other for more textural differences than even a standard chord at times, bringing such a joy that it allows the song to take these exploratory runs and brass breaks without ever losing sight of itself. Even as it shifts gears, the most accessible form of the record comes through the strums and sidestepping vocals of “Coldplay Cover,” as the approach changes, but the driving guitar and vocals at its core only seem to modify tempo and timbre.

Shunk – Shunkland
Montreal

A fun mix of influences you can parse out but may never have imagined together, Shunk is a project that yanks you through the kaleidoscope whether you’re ready or not, but definitely gives you the ride of a lifetime. Merging a more siren-like call with Scottish shoegaze guitars, “Clouds” drops you into a hazy wonderland, with the drums and softer guitars luring you through like glimmers in a wall of smoke. With a more angular punk rush on “Rat King,” Shunk gets bratty in their vocals and lets every run of guitars and drums feel like a slap back in the other direction, sending you flying back and forth before its little operatic runs. Returning us to the fun wordplay of roman vs tennis, “Tennis” is a flurry of vocal twists, stops and starts, and a drive to leap into something deeper at every turn. Letting their freak out and celebrating that side, “Goblin” is a wailing call to enjoy it all deeply, no matter what.

Yuma Abe — Hotel New Yuma
Tokyo, Japan

Somewhere between 50s throwback, atypical instrumentation, and then a lot of knowledge of pop and jazz from across eras, Yuma Abe crafts something that disarms you and then overpowers you with his one-of-a-kind sound on upbeat pop. Taking a huge step from his previous album and a genre swing out from even his last EP, this is an artist evolving in a major way and tapping into retro sounds in a way that feels honest.

“みんなで歌いましょう (Let’s All Sing Together)” starts the album on a blend of quirky vocals and percussion, with Abe perfectly threading the needle on being off-kilter in terms of tone, but always punching like a heavyweight in how much strong funk and pop he’s constantly injecting into every moment of his song, resulting in something bubblegum fun, and yet silly in a completely different way. The bass takes over on “それが気持ちいい (That’s What Feels Good)” for a smoky and seemingly noir-influenced smoothly grooved track, only made even more fiery by that sultry final solo and Abe’s own deep growl. “惚けるな (Don’t Play the Fool)” gets a warmer and beachier, with a soft duet letting him and the other voices knock out addictive vocals before another entrancing guitar solo rips through the track. With the popping flutes keeping things airy on “夢を見ようよ (Let’s Dream Together),” Abe crafts the most sophisticated track sound of the record, while never losing that whimsy that makes this record so fun to hear in the first place.

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