Honey Moon [Vinyl]

Handsome Family | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (April 14, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Carrot Top Records
• ASIN: B001RTP4DG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,083 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Linger, Let Me Linger

2. Little Sparrows

3. My Friend

4. When You Whispered

5. The Loneliness of Magnets

6. June Bugs

7. A Thousand Diamond Rings

8. Love Is Like

9. The Petrified Forest

10. Wild Wood

11. Darling, My Darling

12. The Winding Corn Maze

Editorial Reviews

2009 release, their eighth studio album overall. Honey Moon takes place under bowed branches and deep within winding corn mazes. The release celebrates the duo's 20th year of marriage with a series of love songs that sharply contrast the dark themes of their previous seven albums. Full of an awed sense of emotion in the face of nature's mysteries, Brett Sparks (music) and Rennie Sparks (lyrics) branch from their usual canon of the dark and mysterious on Honey Moon, to establish a theme rooted in the tradition of 19th century romanticism. For the first time there is no body count. It is an album of transcendence, of touching the divine, if only for a moment, through our love of someone else, even if he is a katydid. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Under the Basement - Handsome Family's `Honey Moon' is a 20 year wedding anniversary gift to us all -, May 2, 2009

By 

'Rebel' Rod Ames (Ingram, Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honey Moon (Audio CD)

Rennie Sparks is a poet and Brett Sparks, her husband of 20 years, brings her poetry to life in the form of music. Together they are "Handsome Family" (handsomefamily.com). This song writing duo, possess a chemistry this writer would find very difficult to match.

From the opening track, `Linger, Let Me Linger', we are drawn into their love for each other. The comparisons of their devotion to one another, "I am puddles in the street, waiting for your falling leaves", draw us a picture of what it is like to live in their gothic, alternative country world of words and music. The lyrics to this tune tell us a lot about the duo. They are truly devoted to one another. The rhythmic, almost fifties, Floyd Cramerish sounding tinkering of the piano adds a David Lynchian quality, along with the somber sound of the cello bring it all together.

On the very next track, `Little Sparrows', we are drawn in by an intensely traditional, country sounding, pedal steel guitar (the pedal steel guitar gets me every time). The rhythm of this song is also very traditional. The lyrics, however, are not. In this song they compare their love for each other to absolutely everything. "Oh, you paper cups rolling down the windy street Oh, you little ants winding through the tangled weeds Where you're going I don't care, take me with you when you go". Devotion to one another is the theme, and by the end of the tune there is no question as to this devotion.

The fifth track on the record, and my personal favorite is, `The Loneliness of Magnets'. In this tune we are lured in by a soft snare and bass drum, closely followed by the whistling melody of the song and finally, Brett Sparks showing his baritone voice's range. The song has a very 1920's ragtime rhythm quality to it. The soft picking of the electric guitar further complements the tune. Ms. Sparks' lyrics again are captivating and profound: "Wherever you are tonight as you close your eyes to sleep/Think of me as you drift away to the mist of silver dreams/And I will find you in the darkness where water turns to steam Your pull upon my heart could steer ten thousand wings", followed by the chorus, "I feel the loneliness of magnets and trembling mountain peaks/I call you from dark valleys and I hear you echoing". When you close your eyes and listen to these words and music, you can literally hear it all as if it were growing out of the ground.

The final track on the record is `Down in the Winding Corn Maze'. This song is Handsome Family at its best. The words are perfect and fit with the music to a tee. The acoustic guitar is absolutely beautiful and again, it seems to all grow right out from under your feet, out of the moist, musky earth. The lyrics are as beautiful as the music, "There in a swarm of bees I knelt down at her feet/Such spirals spread for miles through the bending leaves/And she took me to her arms in that cloud of honey bees/Whirring in their whirling as they rose on golden wings/Down in the winding corn maze where green stalks shiver in the wind". Wow! This song very nearly left me without words to write. How can two people love each other so much? They are truly an inspiration to me, and will be to you as well. After listening to this record, I sought out my wife, and hugged her like I had never hugged her before.

I had the pleasure to do an interview with Ms. Sparks a few months back, where she responded to a question about their secret to longevity in marriage, "I think writing songs together has brought us a lot closer...." , and it shows on literally every track on `Honey Moon'.

`Honey Moon' is set for release this coming April 14th on Carrot Top Records (carrottoprecords.com) and is their 11th record to date. If you have one single romantic bone in your body you will buy this record. If you're a fan of Handsome Family as I am, you will buy it simply because it is them. What ever the reason, I promise you this: You will not be disappointed.

Email 'Rebel' Rod at [e-mail]

5.0 out of 5 stars Gets into your head and stays for days...!, February 11, 2012

By 

J. Wittstruck "planetary representative" (Earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Honey Moon (Audio CD)

From the first time I heard Handsome Family songs I have been mesmerized.... I'm dreaming awake now...

The pace of these songs does something to slow down the rush of time and make each moment one to ponder.

The heart-felt and melancholy tunes mixed with odd-ball yet stunning lyrics will stick in your brain and come back days later.... The way they paint the pictures with words and music will have you looking at every scene in your lifetime as an epic moment to remember! You wonder are these people offering humor or straight painful reality... Either way you win.

Yeah, I like them.

I'm no music expert, just goin' with instict here. I really can't think of anyone they remind me of, just a one of a kind sound!

2 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ?, May 20, 2009

By 

Matthew T. Brown "Matt" (Richmond, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Honey Moon (Audio CD)

I bought this cd about a month ago- I haven't listened to it just yet.