antiMusic.com: Just Like Honey - The Wood Room Sessions

Just Like Honey - The Wood Room Sessions

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Just Like Honey songs have always been built around the honeyed vocals of Darlene Jonasson and Bianca Yang, but this duo has never sounded sweeter than on The Wood Room Sessions. "Out In The Storm," for instance, sidesteps the pair's usual dreampop arrangements for something completely different. With its warm, down home fiddle part, Just Like Honey sound (almost) just like a country music duo.

If you're seeking music more akin (although more acoustic than usual) to the duo's other recordings, "Going Down" is a real fine place to start. This song - although accompanied by strings - is built around a driving (albeit acoustic) guitar part. Instead of an electric guitar solo, though, one of the session's classically trained string players steps in to heighten the song's emotional pull. "Note To Self" is another more driving acoustic rocker, if you're listening for that sort of thing.

Although the instrumentation has been rearranged significantly for The Wood Room Sessions, this couple's harmony vocals shine as bright as ever. There's just something naturally beautiful about how a steel guitar and an electric guitar can slide in next to these lovely voices, the way these elements pair-up for "Note To Self.

Lyrically, most of these twelve songs dig deeply into the complicated emotions elicited by romantic relationships. It's a little ironic, though, that the project closes with "Love Is A Four-Letter Word," which is sung so much prettier than any cuss word is ever said. Just Like Honey, though, is just too sweet to ever come off cussingly harsh.

Just Like Honey - The Wood Room Sessions
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