For a moment while listening to “Pretty”, I blinked and found myself in 1994, surrounded by plaid-wearing youths skating through the middle of town, sneering at the popular kids in their Jeeps. Honey I’m Home, a band out of the Netherlands, have captured the early ‘90s indie fuzz sound perfectly on their latest single, bringing me back to the age of my childhood where the cool kids – to me – sat in the park wearing oversized coats in the middle of July, smoking mid weed, and reading James Baldwin or Foucault.
While Honey I’m Home have just started out on the scene, they’ve long past gotten their feet wet. They’ve performed live with several acts including Goat Girl, Hotline TNT, and Girl In Red, and they’ve completed two UK tours. They also just played a set at this past SXSW in Austin, TX.
They’ve done all this with just a handful of singles on streaming platforms: “Pretty” is their fourth. (We covered “Alive” not too long ago, by the way.) On all of them, they’ve managed to capture – but not distill – their roaring on-stage energy and ability to craft melodic angst out of noise, pulling from ‘90s influences such as Radiohead and the Smashing Pumpkins.
“Pretty” fits their slacker shoegaze sound, in that it jeers at the concept of using an appearance as a facade for negative emotions. The band says about the track: “The song looks at emptiness and cynicism, and at how being attractive can sometimes become the only thing left of someone’s personality. Eventually, people start to believe in that as a last form of support: ‘At least I am pretty.’”
It sure does sound like a perfect song for the plaid-wearing crowd. And as a card-carrying member of that clan: I totally dig Honey I’m Home’s new song. Take a listen to it below.
Written by Will Sisskind
