It's sad this band did not their guns and keep their name, the changed it to Honey Pot because there are negative connotations to Teen Suicide. I certainly can't think of any, it sounds like a perfectly good form of population control and thins the herd. If you think this is insensitive then go stick a gun in your fucking mouth. Musically this is folk in some sense, but it's jammed out on a cruise ship where every one is high as a hippie. The title track is more like Bright Eyes being caught up in the holy ghost at a tent revival. There is a more straight up hipster folk thing going on after this. They sing about crack pipes and lyrics have some depressing themes, which is fun for me since I am so heavily medicated. You'll need to be medicated too before this review is over since this album has 26 god damn songs. Though some of these songs are under two minutes. This works better for some songs than others as "Violets" doesn't sound like it is allowed long enough to fully form.
Sometimes the drugs take hold and the going gets almost too weird for their own good. "Obvious Love" seems like the balance of weird to song, finds the ratio of song and substance lacking. Things get better on "It's Just a Pop Song" . The odd sonics meet the folk melodies with only mild pop sensibility. While they often adhere to less is more, this song is jammed out past the four minute. I'm not sure it is deserving of the length. They submerge into underwater garage pop for "V.I.P" . The weird auto-tuned drift of "Wild Thing Runs Free" does weird the right way. They marry lazy folk to noise on "Bright Blue Pick Up Truck" and reinforce the fact that when you put out an album with 26 songs on it unless you are Led Zeppelin there is bound to be some filler on it. It has a drugged jangle that makes me think they were passing out as they recorded it. "Big Mistake" is more of the Bright Eyes styled garage folk.
The cheap drum machine sound at least changes things up for " What You Want" . Though it sounds like the vocals were improvised and had little though put into them. This album often sounds like a bunch of hipsters playing around. I think they have potential that shines through , but I often don't get the irony. The clang into rock music on "God". They do this in a sloppy fashion, but you get the impression they generally don't care. I reach the half way point with "Neighborhood Drug Dealer" and it's become more of a test of endurance rather than something I am trying to enjoy. The layered vocals on this song work better than the bulk of vocal preformences on this album. The piano ballad "Have a Conversation" is pretty much a waste of time. "Beauty" gets into some harsher noise. It's the hardest punk-industrial song on here. There is an upbeat jangle to "Pavement" and then a somewhat sincere delivery to 'America", so by the time you get to "Devotion" you are confused if you should take them seriously.
The next song that seems at all genuine is "Falling Out of Love With Me" when is strummed with enthusiasm, though the trippy 'I Don't Think It's Too Late" is much more interesting. It gets even more hit or miss there though the more experimental and electronic the better. The darker "My Little World" being the high point of these moments. Some songs suffer more from being recorded in their bathroom. "The Stomach of the Earth" is another song that I make more seriously and offers a glimpse into their potential. I think they are going in the wrong direction and the electronic flavored songs are really their strong point. I think it is no mistake that this album came out on April Fools day. I'll give it a 5.5
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