Hi Honey

Are you one of those folks who thought “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” was a direction the 1984 R.E.M. should have gone more towards? Or at least delved into more regularly? Well, that’s a hint of about half of this LP from their more recent Georgian neighbors, Gentle Readers. Otherwise, on this, the group’s third LP, they often exist at that all-night diner where country-rock and rootsy folk-pop mingle, with a sweet piano or church organ out of Talking Heads’ cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” sharing the table, too. So it’s too bad Hihoney doesn’t really strike you enough. Indie veterans out of Vulger Boatmen (singer Susan Fitzsimmons) and Datura Seeds (guitarist Lee Cuthbert, while that group’s singer Paul Mahern produces this), they could write songs that signify a little more musically, in better chord changes to compliment Fitzsimmons’ above-average lyrics. (The Fleetwood Mac-ish Sade cover, “Sweetest Taboo,” is not so hot, either. Bland city.) But the Southern accent is nice, in style and voice, and when the band gets subdued and lets jazzy guest pianist Brandon Bush work a little lead melancholy in (think Mike Garson on Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and Station to Station), they’re much, much better. – Jack Rabid