Charles Ellsworth - Honeysuckle Summer (2021)

Charles Ellsworth’s latest album, ‘Honeysuckle Summer’, is a fun and energetic americana album that shows some great promise. Ellsworth, who is a NYC transplant by way of the White Mountains of Arizona, was raised on Mormon hymns and Top 40 country music, and you can see that influence throughout the LP.

The album starts very well, as ‘Gripping Onto Water’ has a brilliant opening riff and Ellsworth’s voice fits perfectly to it. The short guitar solo is special and the whole album is craving for more great songs like this.

‘Blessed’ is an interesting song, one that evokes a completely different feel as the slow guitar makes it sound almost heavenly. Ellsworth’s voice here is deep and soothing and creates a calm feel for the track. ‘Laundromat’ on the other hand starts with a really groovy and fun vibe and is probably the standout song of the album. His rhyming of ‘tangerines’ and ‘dreams’ is clever and fun for the love song.

‘Miami AZ’ is where the album starts to falter however, as the chugging guitar and basic drums remain. The little guitar riffs do make it stand out, but you’re craving for more in order to make it even more lively and fun. The bridge also feels like you could put it in one of the other songs and not really notice, and perhaps that is the issue with the LP in general, that there are too many similarities in the songs.

Overall, for an 8 song album, you want every song to be special, but they all aren’t quite at it. Although there are bits of every song you will love, there are too many lulls and moments where you think you’ve heard it all before. The final song, ‘Trouble’ however, alongside ‘Laundromat’ are the ones that stand out from the crowd and definitely deserve some playtime.