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Blanco Brown – Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Blanco Brown - Honeysuckle and Lightning Bugs

Blanco Brown - Honeysuckle and Lightning Bugs
3.9

Rating

 3.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very unique Blanco Brown sound
  • Surprising wide range of songs

Flyctory.com Cons

  • No song even close to "The Git Up"

Blanco Brown gave us The Git Up, which even made it to the German charts. After that fun and party hit and some really good reviews of his show in September in Hamburg, I was surely not the only person in the German country music community who was looking forward to his debut album, Honeysuckly & Lightning Bugs.

 

Blanco Brown – About The Artist

I unfortunately did not find out too much about Blanco Brown’s bio. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. While he grew up with rap music, his grandmother introduced him to country music. He liked both genres. His smash hit The Git Up, which was boosted by social media, is a mixture of both genres and majorly contains dancing instructions, similar to line dancing. It topped the US country charts and placed 14th in the overall US charts, though the airplay was average. In Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the song hit the Top 10 of the charts as well. Surprisingly for a country song, the song went up to place 42 in Germany – which is more than fifty spots better than the UK peak ranking. I also featured the song in the July edition of my Country Music Picks. Brown himself named his style “Trailer-Trap”.

 

Blanco Brown – Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs – Track by Track

The album contains ten tracks. Apart from The Git Up, four additional songs have already been released as part of his self-titled EP. It lasts thirty minutes

1. Temporary Insanity

Oops, what’s that? No rap to start with and not too much country rhythm as well. The first song is a die-hard ballad-alike guitar song with some backing vocals. It feels a bit hard to get into the song. Blanco Brown may not be the god on the microphone, but the more you listen into Temporary Insanity, the more you like it.

2. HeadNod

HeadNod sounds much more like The Git Up sound we have been used to already for a while now. And it works again. It is just special and well done. Not a smash-hit like Blanco Brown’s breakthrough one, though.

3. Funky Tonk

There is more country and less rap in this song, but Funky Tonk has a lot of speed and thus catches, at least in the first minute. After that there is some change and slow-down until the song gets back to its speed. Interesting composition. I like the beginning and the end.

4. CountryTime

This track was already part of Brown’s EP. Here is an excerpt why the song is labeled as containing explicit lyrics:

I hear the voices in my head
My middle finger’s ’bout to pledge
Oh, can’t you see that blue and red?
Some things are better left unsaid, yeah

I put two gunshots in the air
The people scattered everywhere
But I don’t really give a care, nope
Some things in life are just unfair

The verses are majorly rap parts. I don’t like rap music too much, but I just cannot say that it does not work together. Even within a song, Brown is so versatile in its recording. And it adds a lot of speed and rhythm. Sometimes, the change in speed is maybe a bit too much.

5. Georgia Power

Eeny, meeny, meeny, meeny, miny, moe
Said you dropped your feelings when you left her cold

Might be quite far away ´from winning the Noble Price for Literature, but Georgia Power nicely illustrates how talented Blanco Brown is to play with language and how he combines different elements to make it a song which stays in your memories.

6. Gemini (Damn Right)

Gemini (Damn Right) is quite melodic and definitely one of my favorites on Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs. Nice one!

7. Ghett Ol Memories

This one, which was also on the EP already, is a lovely reminiscence to Blanco Brown’s childhood days. Nice song!

8. Don’t Love Her

Though I did not get too much of a grip on that song, I just cannot say that it does not make me sway and listen to it. Scratching in a country song feels weird to me… But why not?

9. Tn Whiskey

Another song which is giving this Blanco Brown genre fusion, which is just unique and individual. It’s got rhythm, it is grooving, it is country, there is melody – thank you for this kind of country music re-invention

10. The Git Up

Okay, last but not least… You know that one. I feel I just don’t have to tell you anything about it. Otherwise, you can listen to it above – or in the Spotify widget below.

 

B. Brown – Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs – Spotify

The widget link below allows you to listen to the full album:

 

B. Brown – Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs – My View

Blanco Brown is unique and amazing. I like the fusion of different musical genres. Of course, all these things feel to have a certain potential to be boring and monotonous – but this is definitely not the case with Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs. Each song has its own character and gives a new mixture of the elements which Blanco Brown is able to offer. Maybe it is very natural that no song is close to The GIt Up, though. Nevertheless, a very nice album – it will be interesting to follow Blanco Brown’s next footsteps in the world of country-and-whatever music.

 

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