What would emo mainstay American Football have sounded like if they’d expressed any emotion other than being perpetually bummed? Hard to say for sure, but Austin threepiece Honey and Salt come dang close to filling us in. A dash of early-Nineties’ Northeast punk, traces of young Mike Kinsella’s projects, and lots of mathy guitar make up Honey and Salt’s brainy, startling debut full-length. An impassioned 12-track trek combining instrumental precision with ebullient frustration, Seams of Value tackles both the existential and political, lyrics waxing philosophical, particularly on its most dynamic cuts, “Pastures” and “Feed Them Common Sense.” Wade Allen’s off-kilter riffs anxiously punctuate and drive through existential crises, the wreckage from trains of thought derailing. The LP never allows a minute to breathe, but that’s its Value.
This article appears in April 22 • 2016.