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.
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