Cambs quartet This is my Honesty are certainly on an upward curve. Their last demo was relatively good; an Ian Wetherell-produced slice of catchy pop-punk it was a record that ticked all the right boxes, except for the fact it wasn’t catchy enough. A year on and the band are back with a selection of tunes that are certainly better than their older tracks. However, this seems to be at a cost to the production values, which don’t seem to be quite as good and results in the band sounding a little rough around the edges.
In short, the band play pop-punk tracks which centre around the guitars more than the vocals, a little like how Fastlane do, although the bands don’t sound that alike. Whereas TIMH didn’t quite hit the mark in terms of singalongs last time round, tracks like ‘The Devil’s In The Detail’ and ‘A Handwritten Confession’ show they are growing as a band. The latter in particular has a strong vocal melody, proving the band can write good songs. However, it’s perhaps not as slick as some of their peers – listen to the likes of 3 Stories High or The Honeymoon Suite or play a similar type of music and they certainly sound less rough around the edges. In particular the drum sound is a little rough – although the actual playing is still very good.
This Is My Honesty have taken two solid steps forward in terms of songwriting and one step back on the recording. If they can find a compromise their next record could find them hitting all the right notes.