Honey Revenge taste too sweet on ‘Loving and Losing’

Rating: 6.5

Fusing pop-rock and punk into an album of outstandingly varying quality, aptly-named group Honey Revenge released their second album, “Loving and Losing,” Sept. 17. 

In a 2023 TikTok, vocalist Devin Papadol described the band as a “dupe” of  pop-punk band State Champs and Waterparks, an overproduced pop rock band. 

That self-description couldn’t have been more accurate for their new album, “Loving and Losing.”

State Champs are exceptionally talented in song writing and delivery. Waterparks are awful in delivery. Similarly, Honey Revenge toes a genre-bending line between successful, well-executed tunes and overproduced forgettables. 

First track “Technicolor” is an engaging pop-rock song that sounds like the hardest rock song in a ‘00s Disney Channel Original Movie. This opener uses lyrics about being drunk and feeling overwhelmed with a fast-paced lifestyle as a metaphor for how a partner makes Papadol feel.

“You turn the whole room technicolor / Got me drunk, I need another,” Papados sings.

Like the album as a whole, the song is a mixed bag. The vocals are what a siren’s voice would sound like if it attracted a single-digit number of sailors. At its worst, Papadol’s vocals sound like the other kind of siren.

“Run Your Mouth” is the first of two songs which could be dubbed as pop-punk diss tracks on account of their unrelenting personal attacks to an annoying unnamed ex.

“Every time you talk, you’re sayin’ nothing at all / Pushed everyone away and know it’s your fault,” Papadol sings.

The chorus is masterfully addictive despite its deeply unserious lyrics, evoking a childish cliche in a song about hating someone.

Contrasting previous songs, “Sunday Scaries” strides in its originality as a dance-pop anthem with a funky intro. Despite the song being sonically suited for partying, the breadth of its lyrics expresses regret and shame.

“Poison Apple Baby,” a pop-punk diss track, has an immediate, hard-hitting introduction. The energetic, genre-challenging instrumental is what separates it from being just another good Honey Revenge song. 

“Vile / Self-indulgent, rotten only child / So toxic, you’re a special kind of evil,” Papadol sings.

“Hot Commodity” is about feeling objectified and put on a pedestal — not only by potential partners, but also the voyeuristic gaze of an audience. Though Papadol offers a new emotional concept, nothing else about the song offers any impression. “Hot Commodity” comes across like it’s attempting an addictive chorus and leaving everything else as an afterthought. 

In “Jealousy Monster,” Honey Revenge combines Kelly Clarkson-esque vocals with a modern pop-punk instrumental in a self-critical song about her unhealthy tendencies in relationships.

Like “Hot Commodity,” Honey Revenge manages to take a unique concept, then fails to excel in any department by being underwhelming in comparison to its scattered influences, ranging from ‘00’s pop punk to ‘10’s pop. 

“Trust Issues” sounds like a pop-rock cover of a 2015 Carly Rae Jepsen song. Unlike previous songs, this fusion turns up excellently. In their best tracks, Honey Revenge sound like much-needed pop rock covers of pop hits. 

“Sorry Much” continues this trend with a likely unintentional imitation of a One Direction song. The imitation isn’t just in the sound, it’s in the lyrics too, with the one difference being a focus on  resentment instead of infatuation, a core theme of the album.

“Just wanna say I’m sorry, sorry, sorry / But I’m not sorry much,” Papadol sings.

“Freaks of nature” is nowhere near what ballad usually means, but it’s what a ballad is relative to the borderline overproduction in every other song Honey Revenge has made.

Acoustic sections should under no circumstances be combined with hyperpop vocal distortion as they are in “Freaks of Nature.” Even when a mild pop instrumental kicks in, it still feels hollow. It doesn’t sound powerful and the vocal distortion fails to make it gut wrenching.

Benefitting massively from the failure of the song before it, “Risk” carves its own identity by balancing pop-rock and pop-punk elements. 

After “Risk” offers evidence of what this band could be, “Butterfly Effect” lives up to it as the best song of the album. The chorus is neurochemically catchy but skirts the pitfalls of an addictive chorus as Papadol hits every note not only in the chorus, but in every other supporting verse, too.

“Superstitious” has much less ambition in genre fusion. Instead, it’s an unmemorable electropop song. The funky beat comes nowhere close to making up for a basic chorus and bland lyrics. 

“Inevitable” is impressive — on an otherwise decent album blighted by underwhelming songs, the track is overwhelmingly anxiety inducing and annoying. Its droning vocals and consistently irritating, heartrate-raising instrumental result in an ill-fitting song.

The final track, “Loving & Losing,” is an actual pop-rock ballad. Its lyrics are direct, candid and profoundly express grief over lost love. It takes undeniable ballad-writing talent to go from the previous irritating song to serene and tear jerking.

“I’ll be honest, it’s been a doozy / I’ve been tired of loving and losing,” Papados sings. “Can’t have one without the other.”

The song ends in a rare piece of sentimentality —  a supportive voicemail from her father.

“Loving and Losing” excels for roughly half its tracklist, while the other half drags its potential down. 

Even if the underwhelming songs were cut, most songs are reminiscent of 2010s radio pop, pop-rock or pop-punk heard before. While this can be fantastic for the nostalgic and pop-rock addicted, inevitably, it will invite comparisons that “Loving and Losing” only matches in quality on a few tracks. 

Cynicism aside, Honey Revenge’s album speaks for itself as a demonstration of the pitfalls and strides of genre-fusing pop-rock.

“Loving and Losing” is available everywhere.