By Dixon Blume
Honheehonhee label themselves as a pop act on their MySpace page. Although their debut album, Shouts, carries the necessary pep and sing-along sections to support this idea, many aspects of it stray away from the genre. Basic chord progressions break off into hectic jams, clean eff ects turn into fuzz, and pale vocals become layered with falsetto.
Pop inspiration fl ows throughout Shouts, exemplified by catchy melodies and its short length. Lyrically, Shouts is inspired by dreams and the unknown, themes that add to the sonic images created by the music. A fuzzy guitar and crash-cymbal combo overlaid with synth and bright guitar melodies characterizes the instrumentation. Although it succeeds in many ways, Shouts has one major downfall — many parts of the
album feel borrowed. The shoegaze and dream-pop inspiration is much too similar to other acts in these two niche genres. Despite these borrowings, the album does manage to sound somewhat unique.
Honheehonhee have created a great album with Shouts. The album is fun enough to appeal to the masses and deep enough to keep music enthusiasts interested. Honheehonhee are an act to watch in the future, and I can only imagine that their future releases will improve.