Honeyfitz | Heartbreaking Bravery

May 10, 2018

Honeyfitz – Haircut (Song Premiere)

Photograph by Julia Leiby

Nearly a year ago, this site hosted the premiere of Honeyfitz’s oddly moving clip for “October Air“, which demonstrated a lot of promise. That promise has continued to build over that near-year, culminating in a forthcoming EP entitled Cutting Your Hair. It’s highlight, the elegiac “Haircut”, premieres here tonight.

Elihu Jones, the mastermind behind Honeyfitz, has refined both technique and control over time, honing what can prove to be an elusive craft. One of the more intriguing figures operating in the bedroom pop world, Jones has never shied away from confronting difficulty, something on full display in “Haircut”. Not only is this Honeyfitz’s finest moment to date, as beautiful as it is mournful, it’s also the most challenging. There’s a sense that Jones is probing at some demons in “Haircut” and it can be uncomfortable to contemplate even as the composition radiates a tranquil beauty.

Even though the track is two and a half minutes, by the time “Haircut” ends, it only seems as if the song’s been playing for mere seconds. There’s a magnetic pull that takes the listener deep into a painfully relatable world, touching on the ennui of young adulthood to mesmerizing effect. Everything here works gorgeously, from the shouted backing vocals that act as both punctuation marks and affirmations that hope exists to the instrumentation itself, which is the most richly layered work of Honeyfitz’s young discography.

“Haircut” is another perfect song to soundtrack a volatile spring, offering up glimpses of warmth in a struggle to escape barren desolation. A major triumph, “Haircut” is a song that deserves to be heard by the people who are willing to listen. A sublime work and a potent reminder of Jones’ burgeoning talent, it’s a song that doesn’t deserve to be missed.

Listen to (and watch a clip for) “Haircut” below and keep an eye on Honeyfitz’s bandcamp for more updates about Cutting Your Hair.

June 7, 2017

Honeyfitz – October Air (Lyric Video Premiere)

One of the most distinct pleasures of running something like Heartbreaking Bravery is the unsolicited submissions that wind up hitting home. Artists from all corners of the world, several of which using their own bedroom as their primary recording space, making music that deserves to be heard by so many more people than what music’s disheartening industry politics will ever allow. This site was created as a push-back against the idea that something needs to attract an excess of clicks to be featured and it’s why when something as oddly moving and quietly superlative as Honeyfitz’s “October Air” comes along, it gets its due celebration.

Elihu Jones, the mastermind behind Honeyfitz, has been making exceptional records for the past few years. Old Patterns, Honeyfitz’s forthcoming effort, looks to be the project’s finest to date and it’s highlighted by tracks like “In Circles“, “Dream Restless“, and “October Air”. The latter of that trio’s premiering here today with a gorgeous, simplistic hybrid clip that acts both as a hypnotic visualizer that underpins the passing of time as well as a straightforward lyric clip.

It’s elegant, clever, and uniquely absorbing in its construction but everything’s heightened by the song itself, which is sung with an urgent quaver and awash in pristine tones as much as it is noise damage. Clocking in at just under two minutes, it’s a testament to Honeyfitz’s penchant for coaxing maximal impact out of a minimal setup and it’s a beautiful window into one of today’s many great bedroom pop artists. This is exactly the type of effort that should receive a lot more praise.

Watch “October Air” below and pre-order Old Patterns here.

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May 16, 2017

WHY? – The Barely Blur (Music Video)

The first two days of this week have ushered forth excellent music videos from GospelbeacH, Top Down, Pulgas, The Tambo Rays, Rodes Rollins, Sparks, Demure for Sure, Smidley, Kikagaku Moyo, Justus Profit, and Honeyfitz. WHY? also joined in on the fun, releasing an inventive, vivid clip for Moh Lhean‘s gorgeous closing track, “The Barely Blur”. Colorful, thought-provoking, and straddling the realm of the surreal, “The Barely Blur” joins a very distinctive line of videos that the project’s unleashed over the course of their career.

Utilizing intimate footage of joggers (underscoring the band’s long-held interest in fitness regimens) largely presented in intense close-ups, “The Barely Blur” taps into something ethereal off the bat. It’s a sensibility that’s heightened by both the song’s casually epic sweep and the digital footage that’s intercut with the more human elements. In exploring the duality between its two core paradoxes (grandeur vs. modesty and artificial vs. organic), “The Barely Blur” touches on something intangible, wisely choosing to observe and present rather than to solve. It’s a heady, gorgeous, mind-bending trip and it’s another solid entry into an enviable artistic output.

Watch “The Barely Blur” below and pick up Moh Lhean from Joyful Noise here.