Honeycrack, Prazaic (1996 Sony)
This is a weird one to blog on as it is a well kept secret. Honeycrack are a great band and this is a great album but for those who don't know them you have heard the main artist in this band many a time.
Willie Dowling writes many of the songs contained here and after this bands only album went on to work in the television industry as a composer. yup you have heard him before and never had a clue.
So this is his big break in a way, the band was formed and signed to Sony and went on to play pretty much every dive and pub they could. All this to limited success.
Just as the singles started charting the album came out and what an album. Many of the singles were catchy pop/rock but the album developed this and took it away from the three minute pop song a little.
This album is like flypaper, as catchy as it gets. Singles 'King of Misery' and 'Go Away' could have you hooked alone. pop melodies and rock out guitars catch you unawares, tangle you up in the melodies and the tunes that need that extra listen.
Now the album kicks in with the 'Genius is Loose' a track that should be used to describe the main song writer. Power pop guitars clash into a drummers paradise to make a tune that will stay in your head all week. You will air drum/guitar/bass/sing to this album for months and that is a guarantee.
'Good, Good Feeling' continues the all out rock and air guitar but the band can be very serious and 'If I Had A Life' starts out with a nice arpeggiated intro that feeds into a nice alt rock style ballad. nothing Bon jovi here it is all real and you can feel it.
'I Hate Myself & Everybody Else' could be the hidden gem, fast and loose it attracts the highest quality of air guitarists. 'Animals' still gets played by Mr Dowling to this day and to hear it you will see why.
Production wise this album is spot on, not too much pop and just enough guitars to get it accepted as cool. Radio One was made for this album and band. Three guitarists was never really done then and one of them being a former Wildheart (Chris Jagdhar) you have a line up that could be too good.
Hit single 'Sitting at Home' was the albums all out rock track and a song that went down well live. Made for the kareoke stage and for middle age men to sing due to its success in the charts....
Eh?! no the band seem to have one more single and then split, no big PR release about the split. Kerrang! did not care as did the music world. But the loss is our gain as this album is a classic brit rock/pop gem. Many fans were followers of the Brit Rock movement and went on to follow many of the othe bands about so this one really just slipped away.
Not for me I love it and still play it to this day, as far as I can see much of the band has stayed in the music business. More than likely earning more money now that they could ever have done in Honeycrack. But at the end of the day the music counts and this is an album that will have you counting for years.
Prazaic is easily available on Amazon via CD.
