Forever Honey - "Pre-Mortem High"
Words by Zach Romano
“We were young, darling, for now but not for long,” Julian Casablancas sang on the Strokes’ 2003 classic Room On Fire. When that album came out, Casablancas was 25 years old. On the Pre-Mortem High, the fantastic new EP from Forever Honey (FKA Queue), singer Olivia Price is the same age and is on the same precipice. Pre-Mortem High is the realization that though life is transitioning from youth to something else, you are still young and can still experience youth’s joys - and get mired in its bullshit if you’re not careful; that feeling of knowing the person holding your hair back as you puke in a bar bathroom is probably noticing some new grays.
Transitions and uncertainty, in relationships and in life in general, thematically connect the four songs on the EP, and it’s no wonder – it’s been a very eventful couple of years for Forever Honey. The core of the band met at Penn State University in the mid-2010s and spent time separated between D.C. and Philly before moving to New York as a group in mid-2018. They have been carving out their niche playing shows around the city as Queue and now under their new moniker since. For Pre-Mortem High, the band picked four songs from their catalog and worked and recorded them in Brooklyn with producer Ben Rice (Norah Jones, Valerie June, Jonas Brothers).
The songs themselves are tight, catchy compositions that place Price’s breathy alto over ‘80s guitar jangle and a locked-in rhythm section that never overplays. “Christian” is the most immediate cut on the EP, with a drive and vocal harmonies that recall Fleetwood Mac. Both “Christian” and “Where We Are Sometimes” tackle relationships that seem to be unraveling. The latter is a bit more charitable, though, simultaneously expressing self-rapprochement for tolerating a partner’s bullshit and gratitude that they tolerate yours.
Forever Honey have a knack for outros and seem incapable of just cutting a song after a chorus that’s already been heard twice. This is a good thing, and nowhere is it more evident than on “Go for a Smoke,” where a shuffle transitions into call-and-and response between Price and lead guitarist Aida Mekonnen via an unexpected electronic beat. Despite being the last track, “Twenty-Five” is the EP’s heart, and the accompanying video, which you can check out here, is a joy.
“Pre-Mortem High” is a great release from a band that’s been honing its craft and working toward this for years, and it’s an incredible bummer that the band can’t have a release party or play shows under the current lockdown (it must be said that the EP title feels awfully prescient, as does the title of the new Strokes album The New Abnormal, strangely enough). We can’t wait to see Forever Honey perform these songs live when this is all over, though, and the long meantime, buy their EP here and play it on repeat.
Photo by Kit Castagne
