Better Fly Honey Bee's Facebook page proudly boasts their musical sound as 'twee folk'. A decade ago such a boast would have been met – at least on this side of the Atlantic – with a collective groan and a shaking of the head. The tradition of British and Irish folk music is a long-standing one, but it has been falling into disrepute, or at least falling some distance from the mainstream, in recent times. At least, that is, until its revival in the last few years. Out of London in particular, we've had huge successes with the likes of Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn and, of course, Mumford and Sons. Each of them have taken the roots of folk and made it relevant, made it popular. Purists may decry pop-folk as a sell-out but if it gets new people listening, what's the harm? Singer/songwriter James Wright, better known by the cutesy name Better Fly Honey Bee, is aiming to catch the wave in its ascendancy and, on the evidence of first album Gentleman Ghosts and Brotherly Love, has every opportunity to ride it high.
Unsurprisingly with a name like this, Better Fly Honey Bee deliver a quirky sound. Blessedly, it's not the forced quirkiness of a band trying too hard to stand out because those bands, if they only have that one trick, get stale before you've listened to the album twice. BFHB merge their quirkiness with melancholy, and straddle the line between the two with the grace of a trapeze artist on a tightrope, and do so without any creepy circus folk in the background. Day In Day Out demonstrates this fusion perfectly. Lyrically, it's melancholy – “Wishing, hoping and dreaming, I'm on vacation in my head, and so are you” – but with the childish whiny keyboard and the Beatles-esque use of clapping, it's not a downbeat song. It's whimsical.
This whimsicality is a crucial part of what Better Fly Honey Bee are about, and can be seen in every song. Comparisons to Jose Gonzalez are useful, and by no means unfavourable. There's also a hint of Nick Drake in there. That said, James Wright's vocals provide a vastly different listening experience, having that same throaty warbling of Bombay Bicycle Club's Jack Steadman – they both sing as if there's a trapped and tortured little man inside them trying to get out. It's a voice impossible to dislike, and one we can all relate to: each and everyone of us carries secrets and thoughts that we want to say but never will. Better Fly Honey Bee free those thoughts and we are able to live vicariously through the music.
There are currently five songs on Better Fly Honey Bee's soundcloud page and there is precious little information about them, either on Soundcloud, their Facebook page, or their website. It was difficult even to determine the name of the singer-songwriter. But maybe secrecy is more endearing than a musician who plasters their name and musical inspirations and a lengthy biography everywhere. Either way, Better Fly Honey Bee provide a great soundtrack for the summer: sit under a tree in a park, sit by a river, cycle across a field, watch the bees fly, and embrace the beautiful pop-folk of Better Fly Honey Bee.
Review by Adam Watts
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