HONNE released their new album last month under the backdrop of a world attempting to recover from a disastrous global pandemic.
Let’s Just Say The World Ended A Week From Now, What Would You Do? (WWYD?) is an attempt to answer that question, with one central theme emerging: the importance of love and relationships.
If their previous EP, No Song Without You, was a mixtape about social distancing and loving from afar, WWYD? is the antithesis of that.
The album is about the intimacy one shares with the people that matter most to them and, in the event of a world-ending cataclysm, closing the distance with those you love to share your final moments together.
Emotion At The Heart Of The Album
That intimacy is made most evident in the song Coming Home, featuring female vocalist NIKI. The artists have to travel often because of the nature of their work and as such this song is inherently personal to both.
The lyric, “the hardest part of what I do, is saying goodbye to you” is followed by the determined, warm and insulating promise of the chorus: “I promise I’m home soon, to give my love to you”. HONNE’s ability to relate to their audience so effortlessly is a huge part of what makes their music so special.
The songs are relatively simple, but they are emotive, empathetic and the electronic soundscape is wholeheartedly warm and comforting, inviting the listener to sit down, enjoy the vibes and think about their loved ones.
This outpouring of warm love is continued in various songs, not least in I’m The Lucky One, which begins with a snippet of Clutterback’s wedding speech.
The song encapsulates everything it means to have met the love of your life, the person you want to spend the rest of your days with, however few the world has left.
The warmth that pervades every chorus is perfectly euphoric and with the outro, as the music fades and Clutterback softly sings the line “and please believe me when I say, that I’m the lucky one”, it is as though he is saying his vows in a powerfully personal way.
The answer to the question of the imminent apocalypse, HONNE sings loud and proud, is love.
WWYD is HONNE’s advice to the world to close the distance with your loved ones, to embrace them and cherish all they mean to you, and if you do that, you might just get through the end of days.
