Float Back to You

The trio known as Holy Hive -- singer/songwriter Paul Spring, bassist Joe Harrison, and drummer Homer Steinweiss -- first grabbed fans with their evocative 2019 EP Harping. That release introduced listeners to their dusky, falsetto-steeped brand of retro-pop that drew upon the trios shared love of late-60s style soul and psych-inflected folk music. Its a vibe they continue to explore on 2020s warmly textured Float Back to You. Produced by Steinweiss at his co-owned Diamond Mind Studios in Queens, the album sounds like a lost cult classic. Steinweiss was a longtime member of the powerful old-school soul, funk, and R&B outfit Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and brings a similarly inspired ear for earthy, analog vibes to his work here. But where the Dap-Kings mined the more robust and muscular end of vintage soul, Holy Hive take a more introspective approach. Tracks like Didnt You Say and Hypnosis, balance crisp Motown grooves and guitar jangle with a moody psychedelic undercurrent. Similarly expressive, Embers to Ash showcases the groups more spectral leanings akin to British soul luminaries the Zombies. We also get the yearning Oh I Miss Her So, with its airy harp from Mary Lattimore and a lyrically supple, jazz-informed solo from the Roots and Dap-Kings trumpeter Dave Guy. Red Is the Rose is a moody and darkly hued chamber piece again marked by deft horn arrangements and disarming harp flourishes. Yet more classic folk intimations abound as the group summon the plaintive sweetness of Simon & Garfunkel on Be Thou By My Side and cross Neil Young with Van Morrison on the title track, all before sinking woozily into the hippie dream ballad You Will Always Be By My Side Forever. Interestingly, while Holy Hive nail the vintage vibe they are going for, they also have a knack for subtly updating the sound of their influences. At times they push the drums forward in the mix hip-hop style, or semi-bury their ghostly croons in the arrangement like some kind of proto-shoegaze band. Its an approach that helps to elevate the haunted, vintage-vinyl romanticism at play throughout all of Float Back to You. ~ Matt Collar