Showboat Honey - Kyle Craft
Showboat Honey finds the talented Kyle Craft fleshing out his retro-rock sound with a newly minted band, to mixed results.
Showboat Honey arrives as glam rock star Kyle Craft’s fourth studio album in the span of a little-over three-year period, and his first project where he’s invited friends. These friends not only provide Craft with new musical arrangements, but also lend the album its name, Showboat Honey, which is Craft’s new, fully-formed band made up of himself on vocals, Jeremy Kale on lead guitar, Haven Multz on drums, and Ben Steinmetz on organ.
Craft has never been one to shy away from his ‘60s and ‘70s heartland rock influences, and with this move he took a page right out of Springsteen’s book, subbing out the E Street Band for Showboat Honey. After three strong projects that showcased Kyle Craft’s abilities as a solo performer, one could be a bit skeptical of this choice to situate himself within a band.
Still, I was anxious to hear how Craft could further refine his sound and create a well-oiled machine with the addition of these band members. Although Craft has released four projects since 2016, one of which is an album composed completely of covers of female-led tunes titled Girl Crazy, Craft hasn’t quite been able to put out a project as strong as his phenomenal breakout debut Dolls of Highland. Possibly this change of pace would be exactly what he needed to experiment and refine his insanely promising, but still rough-around-the-edges sound.
Craft ultimately doesn’t deliver on all marks. Showboat Honey is a great album, and one of my favorite releases so far this year. Unfortunately, however, Craft does not appear to be quite as strong of a front-man on this record as previous attempts, possibly as a result of giving his instrumentations more time to shine with the newly minted band. This would almost be okay if the instrumentations were Craft’s strongest, but I struggle to say with certainty that they best Dolls of Highland.
“Broken Mirror Pose” opens the album with a brooding instrumental that marks a clear differentiation in Craft’s usual sound. The chorus slides in unexpectedly, with a hook features an instrumental that is more mellow and subdued than Craft’s usual bombastic hooks. In fact, the sticky hooks that are Craft’s strong suit are all but missing on this record, being subbed in for more wonky, less in-your-face musical moments. The vocals aren’t quite as soaring, the backing instrumentals not as commanding.
Following “Broken Mirror Pose”’s abrupt end, “O! Lucky Hand” opens up sounding like it could’ve come straight off an Eagles record at their prime. The chorus here is bright and lively, but again there is a similar brooding and off-kilter backing instrumental featured, giving the record up to this point a more melancholic feel.
“2 Ugly 4 NY” delves into previously unexplored lyrical territory for Craft. Ultimately, the lyrics on Showboat Honey aren’t Craft’s strongest, but “2 Ugly 4 NY” sees Craft in a more vulnerable state, as he admits, “I’m too honest to come clean/And you’re too jaded to see my through.” The riff is extremely catchy, and it comes as a breath of fresh air in the album.
“Blackhole/Joyride” is next, featuring Craft’s usual cooing vocals over some of the most sonically interesting moments on the record. The chorus sees Craft alternate between some of his lightest vocal moments and most aggressive. This is definitely a highlight on the record, as it features Craft at his most convincing and convicted.
“Bed of Needles #2” is quite possibly my favorite track from the project, with an arrangement of beautiful strings and backing vocals that are otherwise absent from the album, giving it a definitive chamber folk feel. These new elements are surrounded by negative space that makes this song feel more stripped-down than most on the record. Craft also sounds absolutely incredible here, reminding everyone that he can more than carry a track.
“Deathwish Blue,” on the other hand, is one of the most confused moments on the record, not quite going anywhere sonically. The backing beat remains constant throughout the song, with Craft’s vocal delivery remaining at a constant tone and volume as well. Here, it appears as though Craft is performing a melodramatic exercise, as he exclaims, “But you don’t hold my heavy head/Like a coffin holds the dead/No, you hold it like the Earth holds her oceans.” While this leads to more vulnerability, with Craft repeatedly making references to “love” and his “lover”, the overall product isn’t quite up to snuff.
The record bounces back just as fast with “Blood in the Water,” another standout track. Beginning with just a backing piano and Craft’s coos, the song crescendos into a fantastical mix of piano and chimes.
“Blood in the Water” leads seamlessly into “Buzzkill Caterwaul,” which features Craft’s usual glam-influenced bombastic explosion of electric guitar, drums, guitar, and piano. Here, Craft’s vocals are at their best, with a pre-chorus that builds into one of the best, catchiest choruses on the record.
“Sunday Driver” marks the point in the album where (much like this review) it’s beginning to drag along a bit, not quite offering anything new. It’s Kyle Craft doing what Kyle Craft does, and he’s doing it well as always, but the tune isn’t catchy enough and not enough interesting things are happening here to warrant its place on the album. This is also true of the next track, “Johnny (Free and Easy).”
“She’s Lily Riptide” is a lively way to end the album, alternating between jumbled and sparse instrumentation. The chorus is fast and loud and commanding, and ends the record on a high note.
Ultimately, with this record Craft continues to home in on what makes him special. He takes a lot of shots, and while some of them are misses, it is clear that he is still attempting to find his song amidst a field of heavily-felt influences. While the lyrics and instrumentation certainly could improve here and there, Craft has the stuff to make it big, and I’m so excited to see where he goes with it.