Kibby
Whatever Happened To Honor
*** out of *****
The record kicks off with "Trouble It Takes" which deploys a lo-fi strut, catchy lyrics, marching drums and layers of distorted guitars. "Don't Take Your Time" also floats in these same waters but stretches out with screeching guitars while big crashes and soaring singing help "Win Some Lose Some" along as the buzzing guitars percolate all around the decidedly lo-fi production.
Kibby's influences are found in early 90's grunge as "I Want Ya" feels like if Billy Corgan was recording Smashing Pumpkins by himself and on the cheap, while "Choosing Violence" uses cutting guitars and feedback mixed with a sense of easy melody reminiscent of Meat Puppets or Nirvana.
Using those influences in a organic ways finds Kibby amping the slow banging, sludgey distortion of "Get Me To The Dentist" and the revved up, dirty bass thumping punk rock of "Sky Is Falling" which both end up as highlights.
That balance between noise rock and pop fluctuates track to track with a few offerings moving more towards the pop side of things. Both the shimmering "So Dark Outside" and the hand clap accented "Building Up To This" are quirky if a bit too drawn out, while closer "All Of You All Of Me" pulls from Daniel Johnston's sense of wonderment and honesty, which is at the core of the record.
Kibby titled the album as a statement, not a question with Whatever Happened To Honor stating:
When I look around at my immediate culture right now, and culture as a whole, I see a lot of people trying to hide from the truth. People having no interest in looking at anything head-on. So it becomes pretty hard to act with any honor if you don’t even want to be straight up about what is going on in the first place.
That directness comes across in the lo-fi, high fuzz offerings presented here.
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