A Fistful of Peaches will follow Black Honey’s 2021 album Written & Directed. “If the vibe of Written & Directed was creating this whole Tarantino world and this safe space of me almost refusing help and saying I was fine, then with this album it’s the opposite,” Phillips commented. “Lockdown had happened, I’d had two years of not writing anything and feeling like my entire purpose had gone down the drain, I’d been in intense therapy which was exhausting, and what came out was just me regurgitating things from my entire life and building my brain cells back to how they should be. I’ve had to be more honest and vulnerable with myself, but I feel like I’d be disservicing anyone who spends their time and passion and energy into this project to not fucking unveil it all.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Charlie Bronson
2. Heavy
3. Ups Against It
4. Out Of My Mind
5. Rock Bottom
6. Cut The Cord
7. OK
8. I’m A Man
9. Nobody Knows
10. Weirdos
11. Tombstone
12. Bummer

‘Written & Directed’ is Black Honey’s second album. It follows their outstanding self-titled debut released back in 2018 when the world that surrounded the Brighton fourpiece looked and felt like a very different place. Black Honey however are still the bad-ass, truly original band they have always been, they’ve just graduated from the intriguingly anomalous newcomers to becoming one of UK indie’s most singular outfits. They've travelled the world and released a Top 40 album; graced the cover of the NME and become the faces and soundtrack of Roberto Cavalli's Milan Fashion Week show; smashed Glastonbury and supported Queens of the Stone Age, all without compromising a shred of the wild, wicked vision they first set out with.

It's now time for the next instalment of their story – ‘Written & Directed” – which see’s Black Honey deliver one, very singular, message – a 10 track mission statement that aims to unashamedly plant a flag in the ground for strong, world-conquering women. For fierce frontwoman and album protagonist Izzy B. Phillips – it’s the most important message she could send to inspire her cult-like fanbase and fill the female-shaped gap that she felt so acutely when she was growing up and discovering rock music for the first time.

Written throughout 2019 and recorded in fits and spurts between touring, ‘Written & Directed’ is drenched with a hedonistic, anything-goes attitude. It’s also the most full-throttle collection of music that Black Honey have ever-written – egged-on by their run of shows supporting long-term friends and collaborators Royal Blood. Exploring everything from womanhood, to identity and power, it’s an album that revels in the rich history of pop culture, throws a wink to its rock-and-roll heroes, but ultimately (and in true Black Honey fashion) it stands on its own two feet.

With a typically hyper-visual world referencing grindhouse cinema, kitschy pulp films and a flip-reverse of female cinematic representation all primed to unfurl and explode around them, 'Written & Directed' is the sound of Black Honey strapping in and saddling up, of harnessing their quirks, and, as the Phillips has always hoped, riding them joyously into the sunset.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Black Honey return, bringing more of their scathing guitars and pummeling rhythms, pitch-perfect vocals and psychedelic grooves. A superbly singable and dynamic coalition of energy and politicism in one hugely enjoyable package.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Like The Way You Die
2. Run For Cover
3. Beaches
4. Back Of The Bar
5. Believer
6. I Do It To Myself
7. Disinfect
8. Summer '92
9. Fire
10. Gabrielle

Bursting out of the ether in 2014 with their squalling guitars, vivid colours and cinematic vignettes, there’s no other British band out there quite like Black Honey. Having spent the last four years perfecting the indie game, everything you think you know about them and their unique surrealist world is about to be wonderfully shaken up as they prepare to release their hugely anticipated debut album. With contradiction at every turn, it’s an album that celebrates being human, in all its different forms and by doing so, will touch the hearts of everyone that hears it. We’ve already heard ‘Bad Friends’ earlier this year, but with the exception of 2016’s ‘Hello, Today’ (the track that saw the band become a household name at Radio 1), and the 2017 closer ‘Dig’, the album is made up of entirely new music with 9 brand new songs on offer. Album opener ‘I Only Hurts The Ones I Love’ – which you can listen to now – is a fascinating Garbage-flavoured meander that sets the tone for the record brilliantly. From there, there’s stone cold classic ‘Wasting Time’, Lana Del Ray nodding slow-burner ‘Blue Romance’ and disco-pop Trojan horse ‘Midnight’ – to name just a few. However, across the entirety of the record, you can always feel the bare bones of front lady Izzy B Phillips diary scribbles are just around the corner as the varying tracks switch between chart-headed bangers and scuzzy, industrial David Lynch inspired strangeness. It’s the weird and wonderful mind of Philipps - her lovable but villainous, Milky-Bar-kid-meets-Debbie Harry persona – that you find very much at the heart of ‘Black Honey’. An open sufferer of both dyslexia and ADHD, she’s a huge advocate for self-expression without limit and has relied hugely on her band – Tom Dewhurst (drums), Tom Taylor (bass) and Chris Ostler (guitar) – to channel everything that comes from her obsessive and dizzyingly creative head and bottle it into music. The album as a result is ultimately a collage of chaos, shot straight at the heart – honest, inspiring and deeply infectious.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Only Hurt The Ones I Love
2. Midnight
3. What Happened To You
4. Bad Friends
5. Blue Romance
6. Crowded City
7. Hello Today
8. Baby
9. Into The Nightmare
10. Dig
11. Just Calling
12. Wasting Time