Dirty Honey Saving Rock 'n' Roll With Self-Titled Debut Album
The day is finally here; the wait for Dirty Honey’s first full-length album has come to an end. Despite the short time the band’s technically been together, it’s felt like a long time coming. But man, was the wait worth it.
Dirty Honey, made up of Marc LaBelle, John Notto, Justin Smolian, and Corey Coverstone, is the best band to come out of LA in a long time. If anyone has doubts about this, or still thinks rock ’n’ roll is dead and gone, they need to do themselves a favor by picking up a copy of Dirty Honey and realizing otherwise. It’s unquestionably a short LP, with eight songs and a runtime of just under 30 minutes, but damn what a great 30 minutes it is. The album is extremely cohesive, fitting together piece by piece and leaving no room for fillers as it takes you on a hard, blues-rock journey that flows with ease and raw energy from its first track to its last. So without further delay, let's dive right in.
The single “California Dreamin” acts as the album’s opener, and it’s clear why. It perfectly captures the band’s self-described “new-fashioned rock ’n’ roll” sound, brilliantly showcasing LaBelle’s impressive, swaggeringly distinct vocals, Notto’s grooving-yet-dangerous lead, Coverstone’s swinging drums, and Smolian’s rhythmic bassline that acts as a foundation for the song while still getting to be playful and full of movement. If you’re paying attention to the current rock ’n’ roll scene, then perhaps you’ve already seen their music video for it. If you haven’t, make sure you don’t miss out.
Similar to the images you see in the video, while listening to the song, you’ll be able to feel the heat of the California sun shining on your face as you smell the salt of nearby ocean spray. But while it may all be a beautiful, sunshine-lit dream, the song’s darker warnings about it “tearing us apart” and making its way into “our mind and our hearts” won’t be heeded until it’s too late. “California Dreamin’” will catch hold of your mind and heart; but you’ll be happy it did. As Dirty Honey continues to grow, there’s no doubt that “California Dreamin’” will be a classic in their lineup for years to come.
Next up is “The Wire,” a song detailing the challenges of a relationship you really know you should walk away from, but just can’t seem to. It’s got a tight rhythm and catchy groove, coming complete with an especially killer solo that’s over too soon.
But it’s when we move to “Tied Up” that things really start to turn lethal. The cover image for the song of a smoking, blindfolded skeleton tied to a pole with three arrows shot through his chest honestly sums up its feeling quite nicely. Well, perhaps “nice” isn’t a word that should be used to describe this song. There isn’t anything nice about it; if music were something you could physically touch, you’d be pulling your hand away from “Tied Up” with sizzling burn marks. Then, just as the song is coming in on its close, the music suddenly falls out from under you, leaving only LaBelle’s lightly-rasping voice and the female backup singers to finish things out with an attention-grabbing ending. It’s also noteworthy how well the guitar and bass play off each other here—from the song’s core riff to the lead, the skillful interplay between Notto and Smolian really works and more than makes up for the lack of a rhythm guitarist.
A personal favorite and a great follow up to “Tied Up,” “Take My Hand” takes the building theme of the album and runs with it. Here, things get even grittier as we lose a little of the honey in favor of getting a little dirtier. And they waste no time showing this, jumping straight in with a filthy, makes-your-hips-roll opening riff that continues to smear dirt and grime all over you for the next three minutes and five seconds. So while “Take My Hand” does extend its hand to you, you gotta be careful about taking it. There’s something almost dangerous about the whole thing as it’s clear from the first few notes that things are nasty, and they’re only gonna get nastier. Exactly the kind of mean, steam-and-sweat-ridden hard-rock fun we’re looking for.
This brings us to “Gypsy,” the second biggest single on the album, and one that I can bet is going to grow to be a fan favorite. Opening with straightforward, hard-driving drums that act somewhat in contrast to the loose, jazzy swing-style he has on most other tracks, Coverstone gives the song a lively, energizing playfulness equivalent to the feeling you’d get from flying down a desert highway with the top down. This playfulness then evolves into a full-on grooving jam as the rest of his bandmates promptly join in. And holy hell, do they ever jam. At one point, the marathon-sprinting music drops off a bit, sucking in your attention before building up to the song’s epic, if not brief, guitar solo that steals the show around the three-minute mark. Not to mention, the lyrics are also fun and catchy, the chorus especially so, and you’ll find that this is the kind of song you want to turn up in the car and really feel as you ride down that desert highway. As you do this, you might catch yourself rocking out in your seat, and that’s just fine. Because while “Take My Hand” grabs you by the hips, “Gypsy” hits you hard with adrenaline, making your pulse race to the point that your heart is beating in time with the drums as you suddenly get the urge to jump up and dance around, all while singing along with the chorus.
Coming directly after is “No Warning,” another tight, wickedly unapologetic tune about relationship difficulties with some seriously entertaining lyrics such as “But what you do need most / is to cry me a river.” Ha! Now that’s some classic, rock ’n’ roll, I-ain’t-staying-for-you kind of jiving.
This takes us to the penultimate track of the album: “The Morning.” Though it has a similar style musically, the message of “The Morning” is a bit of a shift from that of “No Warning,” being all about wanting to hang on till the last possible second. LaBelle uses a bedroom-voice drawl at the beginning here, a style that comes back before each chorus, and a change that breaks things up nicely and distinguishes it from other tracks. I’d be excited to hear more of this lower, drawling-style of his voice in the future. Another notable factor in the song is the bass. Specifically during the solo and toward the end, the bassline gets busy and kicks ass, holding things down while letting Notto shine as the guitar is given freedom to take off and do its thing.
Then, before you know it, and maybe before you’re ready, we’ve reached the finale. Both tonally and stylistically, the ending track, “Another Last Time,” marks the biggest change in the entire album. And it’s fantastic, pulling you in right from the start with excellent, intriguing guitar work that transforms with ease into the main rolling riff of the song. Now this’ll make your body sway, not unsimilar to how you might begin doing the snake-hip move to Guns N’ Roses’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” That’s how infectious this song is. And once again, the solo Notto unleashes at the 2:50 mark is spectacular—my only critique once again being that it could be longer.
All in all, an entrancing musical flow and beautiful chorus, complete with a choir of background voices, bitter-sweet lyrics, and a particularly moving, heart-on-the-sleeve vocal performance from LaBelle, makes “Another Last Time” the perfect close to the album. In fact, it’s already easy to imagine this one being played on the big stage, the entire arena swaying to the beat, either singing along or closing their eyes and soaking up every last drop of this affecting, heartfelt song. A song that manages to pack genuine sentiment and vulnerability while never coming close to verging on the over-sweet-balladry territory that so many other bands fall prey to when attempting something similar. An impressive feat, no doubt, and one Dirty Honey pulls off effortlessly.
And just like that, the album is wrapped. But what isn’t wrapped is the feeling you get from listening to it all the way through for the first time. The moment I finished it, I could not stop smiling. I just sat back and grinned because I knew, I knew, this was something special—I could feel it right down in my bones. Then I put the album back on repeat. And trust me when I say, you will too. You see, Dirty Honey knows what the hell they’re doing, giving us an album that proves rock is, indeed, making a comeback. And thank God for that. Because for a while there, it seemed the spark that lit the flames of the rock ’n’ roll resurgence a few years back with bands like Greta Van Fleet was beginning to die out once again without warning. But if Dirty Honey is any indication, that spark is about to catch; and the music industry should be ready to be set ablaze.
So where do we go from here? Well, I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll see these guys on tour soon as this is the kind of band you just know you gotta see live at least once in your life. I have no doubt their chemistry displayed on each and every track would spark like a live wire onstage. And considering that today marks the release of the debut LP, the possibility that they’ll be back on the road performing concerts all across the country as soon as they can is a good one.
Until then, it’s with joy that I can say Dirty Honey’s given us an album that just gets better with every listen. So while its eight-track runtime is relatively short, it has to be noted that this album works exactly as it is. All the songs chosen for this LP make for a stylistic cohesiveness while also feeling fresh and distinguished from one another at the same time, working to create a fulfilling experience that grows and changes as you move from beginning to end. And that’s what an album is really all about: the experience you have while listening to it. In this case, it’s an experience that grabs hold of you the moment you begin the first track and, I can tell you right now, it doesn’t let go.