BØRNS is used to the spotlight. With almost eight million monthly listeners on Spotify and his most listened-to song, Electric Love, soaring well over a billion streams, his name is anything but new in the music industry. With his release of “Honeybee,” fans were initially disappointed by the track list, which only had seven songs and not a single feature on the entire album. Although the length was disappointing, BØRNS brought something utterly different to the table. “Honeybee” has an upbeat and sunny vibe to the album throughout, and while listening, it feels like you got transported to a Caribbean cruise where all you want to do is sing and dance along.
The starting track of the album, “Honeybee,” starts quickly and intensely. His melodic signing at the beginning reminds me of Bohemian Rhapsody, with intense vocals almost as soon as you press play. At first, I was confused about the song’s vibe, but after the intro it quickly jumps into a wholesome love song, which is the blueprint for the rest of the album. My favorite part of this song was, by far, the vocals. I wasn’t a big fan of the songwriting because he often repeated lyrics, which I would’ve enjoyed the song more if it had deep lyrics the listener could resonate with.
Although the album started on a good note, it quickly changed for the worse. The second song on the album was “Blue Corvette,” which is ironic because the song had absolutely nothing to do with a blue Corvette. Not only was the song’s title disappointing, but so was the rest. It sounded like an AJR song the whole time, but somehow worse. The entire time I listened to the music, I counted the seconds it would take for it to be over. The lyrics had no storyline and seemed like they were running in circles with no clear destination. This album would’ve been better off without the addition of “Blue Corvette.” Hopefully he will stay away from Corvettes in the future.
After a devastating and morally crushing second song, he delivered the third song of the album, “Grateful For.” I am in love with this song. Every time I listen to it I picture myself in Jamaica with a delicious virgin margarita at sunset, surrounded by everyone I’ve ever loved. The song has such a warm feeling and genuinely cheers me up from anything. The song clearly shows his love for whoever this song was written for. This song reminded me of “Upside Down” from Curious George, and it is safe to say this entire album (except “Blue Corvette”) could be in a Curious George episode due its warm and playful energy.
Later in the album, we are introduced to a song called “Breakfast Of Bohemias.” At the song’s beginning, I had absolutely no idea what was happening. It was a sensory overload, and a lot of instruments were playing at the same time. With this almost aggressive start to the song, I didn’t believe I would be a fan of it. However, as the song progressed and he settled into the beat, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest. It had similar vibes to the previous song, “Grateful For,” but in the middle, he added a beautiful instrumental that had remnants of angelical salsa music that I had no choice but to get up and dance along with. I also enjoyed the addition of saxophones in the song. It made it feel more upbeat. At this point in the album, I noticed that each song started fusing together and beginning to sound alike, which was a negative for this album because a good album has versatility.
Quickly after, we moved to a song called “Taylor.” After getting through the initial disappointment of finding out the song was about Taylor Swift, I was more disappointed. It sounded like he was just talking to a girl named Taylor, and I didn’t feel he was indeed in love with her. I also feel like the song is just too broad that no one feels they can genuinely relate to this song. I would’ve loved it if he made us feel like he was in love with Taylor, but frankly, it felt like he had never met Taylor. Furthermore, this song also sounded like every other song on this album. He tried to make his album flow and feel cohesive but went overboard, creating identical songs. A positive thing he did with this song was that it had a very southern feel I enjoy the sound of southern music and how it makes you think.
When all is said and done, “Honeybee” is an alright album. It had a lot of highs but also plenty of lows. I enjoyed the concept of the album, but I did not like how he executed it. It didn’t seem very planned out, with the drop not being advertised as much as it should’ve been and many fans blindsided with the album. Another thing I disliked about the album was the album cover. The album cover has nothing to do with the album, and it had potential to be an excellent addition. He had so many different aspects of different genres of music in this album, and he could’ve used the cover to make something beautiful, but he took the lazy and easy way out.
“Honeybee:” ★★★☆☆
Gary Weisberg • Jan 26, 2025 at 7:58 pm
After reading your review, I thought you might like to know that the song ‘Taylor’ is about a guitar made by Taylor Guitars.