Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Scandalous

By Paul Casey

The first thing to be said about Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears‘ second LP, Scandalous, is how decent it sounds. The production by Jim Eno emphasizes the rough edges built into these tales of betrayal, sadness, and unusual sexual requests. Joe Lewis’s voice, while not terribly distinctive, has enough energy to keep things flowing. His Honeybears also manage to keep things rocking along, with a solid horn section.

As with all modern bands who deal in the well-worn genres of Blues and Soul, the issue of authenticity is a tricky one. Intentionally replicating the lo-fidelity sounds present on those seminal recordings can be a fast ticket to being labeled as a gimmick outfit. Additionally, turning out overly clean sounding, modern digital recordings can sound sterile and inauthentic. Eno’s production mostly avoids these pitfalls.

The strengths of Scandalous are to be found in an assured, if unremarkable, blending of familiar sounds. Joe Lewis & The Honeybears keep a tight reign on the proceedings. The riffs, in keeping with the quality of the album, are solid, if unmemorable. “You’re Gonna Leave Me,” which possesses a gratingly obvious blues riff, stands out as a weak link in this respect. The album’s 38-minute running time clips along, and for the most part, no song overstays its welcome.

While Lewis and the Honeybears are certainly more than competent at turning in high energy Soul and Blues—as evident on the opening track, “Living In the Jungle”—there is ultimately a lack of character to their material. There is a sense of comedy which helps, as on the lovingly gratuitous “Booty City,” and the talking blues of “Mustang Ranch,” with its nod to ’70s funk’s preoccupation with all things UFO. It would have helped if this kind of twist on the material were more pervasive, as it is the closest the album comes to having any real color.

Although Scandalous fails to distinguish itself as anything other than competent, it is not a bad album. Its influences are generic and it deals nearly exclusively in cliché, though perhaps, that is missing the point. Perhaps it is enough that they can make a crowd move. While watching the band’s energetic performance on Later. . . with Jools Holland from 2009, it occurs to me that these concerns may well evaporate in live performance.

Scandalous is a well-recorded, professional exercise in Retro Soul and Blues. It may not stand as a great LP, but then it is not really trying to.

Scandalous was released on March 15 via Lost Highway Records. Visit the band’s website to order a copy.