Thursday, August 2, 2018

Honest me release EP



Honest me release EP

If you’ve been following underground music lately, then you’ve probably been hearing the name Honest Men being thrown around a lot in critic circles, and for good reason. Their eponymous follow up to their self-released extended play Okay Dreamer officially drops this May, and it’s already got everyone in college radio buzzing with anticipation. Featuring six songs led by three hot singles, Honest Men looks to take this band onto the next level of stardom and into the next decade of popular music.


Formed in Waco, Texas in early 2015 by three Baylor University students (vocalist Seth Findley, guitarist Brooks Whitehurst and drummer Zach Solomon), Honest Men evolved into a four piece when they added bassist Nate Wallace that winter and rounded out their sound before heading into a Nashville studio for their debut recording. Now with a lot of tour mileage under their belt and an overabundance of energy to expend, they’ve gone back into the studio, this time a little closer to home in Austin, and the growth in their craft is very apparent. Where Okay Dreamer saw the band lay out their template for making relevant synth pop that could still play well with big guitar riffs, Honest Men sees the band escalating their aural capabilities to an entirely different level of professionalism. If Okay Dreamer was essentially a well-mixed demo, then Honest Men is its matured successor, ready to go deep and get personal while still knowing how to have a lot of fun.


The three singles from this extended play are all great standalone recordings but mesh perfectly together on the full record as well. “Mad Love,” the first single, is about as authentic as it gets in its strutting coolness that could have fit well on the GTA Vice City soundtrack in a lot of ways. In an effort to remind us that we should save our sorrows and constantly push forward to bigger and better things, “Mad Love” is as much a festive song as it is a commentary on self-analysis. The second single, “I’m Okay,” is also laced with an important message that people, especially in the last couple of years, have desperately been in need of: chill out, we’re going to be okay. These days, when it seems like everyone has to take a pill or smoke something to be able to function and get through the simplest, most mundane aspects of life, it’s refreshing to hear singer Seth Findley just cut through the noise with these biting lyrics. The third and final single off of Honest Men is “Rose,” an ode to the raw power of love that can overtake any person when they find exactly what, and who, they’ve always been looking for. I don’t think I can decide which of the three is my favorite, honestly because they’re all too catchy to choose from. Honest Men have got a way of doing everything the right way while still making compelling, wistfully unorthodox music.


To find out more about Honest Men and preview their upcoming live schedule, check out their official Facebook and Instagram pages, and look for their eponymous EP at the end of this May.

Joshua Beach

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