Black Honey announce third album ‘A Fistful Of Peaches’ with new single ‘Heavy’
Black Honey have announced their third album ‘A Fistful Of Peaches’ – listen to new single ‘Heavy’ below.
The Brighton band are due to release the 12 track record – the follow-up to last year’s ‘Written & Directed’ – on March 17, 2023 via FoxFive Records. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
- READ MORE: Black Honey live in Kingston: despite the setbacks, the Brightonians are a band unleashed
Arriving this week, the grunge-y and anthemic ‘Heavy’ sees frontwoman Izzy Phillips delve into “the parallels between grief and depression”. It also references Artax’s traumatic death scene in The NeverEnding Story (“Serotonin let us down/ Don’t wanna watch the white horse drown“).
“We wrote this song the day I found out the founder of our fan club passed away from COVID-19,” explained Phillips in a statement. “We were talking about the weight of grief and the way it holds you down.
“The weight of mental illness and how it brings you a deeper understanding grief. There’s always a glimmer of light though and I love how ‘Heavy’ has that kind of glitter darkness. It’s in my nature to become co-dependant and I think in this song I’m reaching for someone to help me climb back out.”
She continued: “I talk a bit about The NeverEnding Story [1984] as it was my first dialog with death and depression as a child. Watching Artax the horse getting swallowed by the nothing whilst Atreyu screamed helplessly from the edges of a swamp really spoke to me.”
‘Heavy’ arrives with an accompanying official visual directed by and starring Dakota Schiffer from Drag Race UK. Schiffer explained that the visuals, which mark her directorial debut, are “centred around the themes of trans femininity”.
“A self-portrait of a struggling trans person who’s exterior appears alluring and glamorous but is constructed out of a need for survival,” she added. “That survival has led many trans people in history to endanger themselves in pursuit of euphoria.”
As for ‘A Fistful of Peaches’ on the whole, the forthcoming full-length is described as Black Honey’s “most personal, revealing album yet and a record that embraces every side: the palatable and the monstrous, the hopeful and the pitch black.”
Phillips explained: “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.
“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.”
She went on: “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.
“Most of this record is me trying to figure out where the line is between normal mental health and when you’re having breakdowns every day that then become part of normal. I thought everyone cried everyday, I thought everyone had traumatic flashbacks and nightmares.”
Phillips added: “This album is like, what the fuck? I didn’t have to have that? It’s like opening a new door to a future that I didn’t think possible, but it’s also soured by the realisation that I had to suffer through so much that I shouldn’t have had to. I don’t know what I’ll make next but it won’t be where I was when I made this.”
You can see the cover artwork above, and find tracklist for the album below.
‘Charlie Bronson’
‘Heavy’
‘Ups Against It’
‘Out Of My Mind’
‘Rock Bottom’
‘Cut The Cord’
‘OK’
‘I’m A Man’
‘Nobody Knows’
‘Weirdos’
‘Tombstone’
‘Bummer’
Black Honey released the single ‘Charlie Bronson’ over the summer along with a boxing ring-set video.
The band are scheduled to perform at next year’s edition of Live At Leeds: In The Park, which will be headlined by Two Door Cinema Club. Other acts on the line-up include The Lathums, Everything Everything and The Big Moon.
The post Black Honey announce third album ‘A Fistful Of Peaches’ with new single ‘Heavy’ appeared first on NME.
Tom Skinner
NME
