Hunny - New Planet Heaven LP

After a series of viral singles that established their spirited blend of spiky dance-rock, new wave, and punk-pop, SoCal natives HUNNY recorded their full-length debut, 2019's Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes., with Grammy-winning engineer Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, Wolf Alice) in the producer's chair. Although they were soon physically separated by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bandmembers went to work on new songs and managed to complete nearly 100 demos that would be whittled down to a dozen tracks for the follow-up. Meanwhile, they decided on a looser, less polished approach -- one that prioritized the band's chemistry -- and they eventually met with producer Derek Ted (Field Medic, Dora Jar) at his Los Angeles studio, nicknamed New Planet Heaven. The resulting album, HUNNY'S NEW PLANET HEAVEN, leaves in several instances of background noise and intro/outro clatter while touching on similar stylistic inspirations plus a few additional ones. The record opens sparsely with a quiet, melodic electronic loop and tinkling piano interjections behind a tender, conversational stanza from singer Jason Yarger that looks upon the passage of time with references to sensory objects like a skipping CD and cracked leather seats. When the full band joins in, it's with driving rhythms and post-punky guitar tones, as Yarger insists, "It's not bothering me/If it's not bothering you." The group take a punk-poppier turn on the dissonant yet still highly melodic "ring in ur ear," featuring Motion City Soundtrack's Justin Courtney Pierre, as well as on tracks including "nothing amazing happens," with its exasperated shouts of "class division." Among the more stylistic not-quite-outliers are the druggy and drum-less, lost-in-thought "my own age" and the breakbeat-underscored "all my luck." Essentially a love song, the latter track sets its easygoing tone with rippling extended chords. The mood throughout HUNNY'S NEW PLANET HEAVEN is, like the debut, pretty positive even on the more anxious songs, and while the album, for better or for worse, does come off as a "best-of" selection rather than a conceptual whole, that's a good thing when it comes to the record's hooks, melodicism, expanded variety, and apparent overall growth. -All Music Guide