Honeyglaze - “Female Lead”

SXSW 2023 - OEB Score: 7; Popularity Index: 3

Pairs Well With…My Morning Jacket, Cassandra Jenkins, Katy J Pearson

Honeyglaze cover a wide swath of space on their self-titled debut, anchored by melancholy indie rock while dipping into angular alt-rock, jazz, and bedroom-folk track to track. Adventurous yet steady, they bring these influences together in a fluid way, not letting experimentation get in the way of core, connecting songwriting. Warm, breezy rock takes over at times too, surf-rock and power-pop modes criss-crossing with nostalgic ease. The gap between their darker and brighter sides is wide enough to make it sound like completely different bands are performing on the same record, a notion that should make for a diverse song-list even when performing short gigs like at SXSW. (Kevin McStravick)