Drizzle Pop

I blame the weather for the stubborn seam of melancholy running through a lot of British pop. But occasionally that cloudy grey can be beautiful. Honeybus made the UK equivalent of Sunshine Pop; instead of catching a Malibu wave they huddled under Brighton Pier in the rain, sharing a Thermos of tea, and dreamed. Literate, sensitive, tasteful, melodic, and every song in the key of sad. Even the upbeat songs never lost that atmosphere, it's just there, in the air they breathed, in the weather. But it's often sheerly lovely, and never depressing. These guys were dreamers first and last, romantics, but they could write a stunning tune. Joe Cocker's genius version of Do I Still Figure In Your Life predictably betters the original, amplifying that melancholy into the desperation they could never achieve, but it's not the only song worthy of a genius cover - nearly all of them are.

The harmony singing is flat-out gorgeous. There's some tasteful string and horn arrangements, but none of it can be called remotely psychedelic or even rock, and at the time that might have made them appear a little old-fashioned. It didn't help that dumb-ass Deram sat on their album until the band had broken up (cf. Skip Bifferty, The End, und andere). In 1969, the heads were nodding out to heavier sounds, and the Honeybus, in spite of the worldwide success of Maggie, had lost their moment. The original lineup reunited for an album that the record company shelved, for fuck's sake. If ever a band was poorly served by both luck and record companies, it was Honeybus. But quality songs well-played will last forever, regardless of fashion. God bless the Honeybus, and all who sailed in her.