Moving seamlessly from topics like unfulfilled love, family, grief and the wider scope of our roles on Earth, Honey Cellar’s Borders is a thoughtful representation of what it means to be human.
Gliding seamlessly between evocative subject matters and weaving them together with artful ease, the group explains that the album was born out of a culmination of events which affected the group in the last few years.
“We’ve faced heartbreak, death, illness, job changes and financial insecurity. We’ve started new relationships, ended old ones and some of us have gotten married. We’ve traveled and lived in other cities and countries. And through it all, we’ve been observing, reflecting and writing.”
While the Chicago-based band is characteristic for their traditional folk roots, their newest album opted for a vamped up sound reliant on more rock, pop, indie sensibilities. This natural evolution of Honey Cellar’s brought on a new dimension to Borders and to their energy as a band. The group, which features Joey Buttlar (drums, percussion), Danny Connolly (vocals, rhythm guitar), Lucy Holden (vocals, violin, mandolin), Catherine Krol (vocals, bass, guitar) and Tariq Shihadah (lead guitar), shine brilliantly with graceful sonic symbiosis.
Seeking to pose questions in order to garner reflection, tracks like “Passing Ships,” “Curtain,” “Artist’s Dream” and “About You” contemplate the “what if’s” in relationships. The songs explore “the dreams we have of lovers that tend to fantasize them into someone different than they are,” and how that can be dangerous if those fantasies move far from reality. On the other hand, there’s songs about familial love, like “787” and “Sisters” as well as deep grief for a loved one on “Rice” and tender sweet loving on a track called “Love Song.”
In this way, Borders offers listeners insight by authentically capturing life’s highs and lows.
In addition to the ephemeral parts of life is the album’s thematic weaving of the utterly immutable, this is where the title Borders comes into play. “All of us have stood at borders, whether physical, mental, emotional, or relationship-based, and had to make big decisions about our future,” Holden explains. “We also see ourselves—as a few of the many humans on the planet—standing at social and environmental borders.” While “Dorma” explores the magnitude of nature, “Come What May” focuses more myopically on the current world situation and “Around” touches on the inevitable life cycles of every earthly-bound creature.
Ruminating poignantly on the unanswerable questions of life, Borders invites listeners to breathe through the unknown and fight for the light on the other side of things. Always keen to end on a positive note, the final track offers a thoughtful sentiment of grounding importance, as the group sings:
“Winter fades, earth spins round, we all rise to another dawn.
Come what may, we’ll stand our ground.
We will smile, as we go on.”
