The Tartan

HUNNY’s “New Planet Heaven” was one of my most anticipated albums of the year, this being their third album after 2019’s “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.” and 2022’s “Homesick.” If you’ve never heard of HUNNY, you’d probably like them if you enjoy COIN or Hippo Campus, but your results may vary.

As part of their promotion of “New Planet Heaven,” HUNNY bought naming rights for a star. Not sure I can name another band that did something like that, but it gives a unique marketing for “New Planet Heaven.”

But anyways, enough about the background, let’s talk about the album. I want to start with “bothering,” the album’s opener. “bothering” starts with some plucking notes and quiet vocals and scattered piano that quickly changes to something much bigger. “bothering” is such a perfect example of how HUNNY can change into many different styles and sound good doing it, as the rest of “New Planet Heaven” shows. It also thematically sets up the rest of the album with its discussion of anxiety and relationships with others, which many of the other songs focus on.

Next is one of my personal favorites on the album, “sixteen stitches.” Like “bothering,” it has a quiet start that quickly evolves into something much louder. The song is constantly second-guessing itself and accepts that there’s not much they can do about it, like “Dizzy and dark is just my default/Or maybe I’m not very smart or highly evolved.” “sixteen stitches” also has a great beat and it was definitely an unexpected favorite.

The third song on HUNNY’s “New Planet Heaven” is “action –> reaction,” which was also the first solo release of the album and what made me so excited for what was to come. The opening is a short blurb from a broadcasted game L.A. football club game, and somehow perfectly sets the stage for the song. It’s a song about wanting to reach agreements in arguments and how the little things can snowball. It speaks about the insecurities of arguing with someone who means a lot to you (the focus on “Afraid you’ll run away”) and the anxieties you get when you’re in a relationship. Overall, a great song that also has a great music video.

“big star” is up next and doesn’t disappoint. It’s about getting into your own head too much and trying to get out of it. I think just waking up and not feeling up to whatever is ahead is a universal experience, and “big star” puts that feeling to words. The drums in this song are a highlight, but I also want to know what specific shade of green the song refers to…

“89cc” is up next, and it’s my other favorite on the album. I am asking you to please stop reading this article for a moment and look up the music video for “89cc” to see an oddly sweet love story that answers the question, “Would you still love me if I was a worm?” It’s ridiculous and makes me like this song so much more. The saxophone and clarinet solo just adds to the enjoyment of the song and the lyrics equally match, my favorite being, “You say the world is too big and you’re too small/But I think you’re just my size.”

“my own age” is such a departure from the rest of the album (especially after “89cc”) that it was a bit shocking the first time I was listening to the album. However, I believe it’s perfect on this album. “my own age” focuses on the moodier aspects of “New Planet Heaven,” and doesn’t have many lyrics, but that’s because it knows exactly what it is: it’s a reflection on your younger years and accepting that you can’t change your past, but you can accept it. It also highlights how dynamic HUNNY’s music can be, which I feel is one of the overall strengths of “New Planet Heaven.”

“ring in ur ear” is next and features Motion City Soundtrack, a partnership that I’ve never considered yet makes perfect sense in hindsight. Like “my own age,” it’s a reflection on the past, but it’s in a completely different style, as it’s much more rocking than the quietness of “my own age.” It’s a song about the good things that shaped us as people and how we reflect upon them. Not sure I have much else to say about it besides I like it!

“solo” takes us back to the love themes of “89cc” and focuses more on the wanting aspect of relationships, whether you want one or you’re already in one. There’s something about the line “Don’t call me crazy/Just call me back” that I like so much; you don’t care how you’re going to be perceived by the other person, you just have such a need to talk to them, and I think that’s so sweet. Whether you take the song to be smothering or needy, “solo” focuses on our need for connection and how we express that to other people.

I’m not sure how to describe “nothing amazing happens” without missing something, so I encourage you to look more into it. At surface value, it’s a song about focusing on day-to-day life and ignoring all the bad things happening around you, but it’s more about how we deal with our reality, especially when we get confronted by the part of reality that we may not normally interact with (hence the repeated “Class division”). While I don’t have it on repeat like some of the other songs, I still enjoy it.

“all my luck” can be described as just having a good time being in love. It’s a song about recognizing how lucky you are to have someone else in your life that you care about that cares about you in the same way (see “Every moment that I spend is with you/I’d be a fool to forget all my luck”). It’s a good listen and while it might be more laid-back that some of the other songs on the album, it still feels right at home.

“kick ur teeth in” has somehow become one of, if not my favorite songs on “New Planet Heaven,” and I can’t exactly say why. “kick ur teeth in” focuses more on piano than the other songs on the album. It’s another song about insecurities and anxieties and how we constantly trick ourselves into thinking the worst of situations we’re in (“This could be another one of your tricks/I’ll bet it and it’s so pathetic/Last night, kicking your teeth in, I wanted to be friends”). The song also mentions “apophenia,” which is “the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things,” which I thought was interesting.

And finally, we are at the last song of the album: “palm reader.” I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t a fan of “palm reader” the first time I heard it. While some of the other songs could be perceived as being out of place, this one felt out of place to me, though in hindsight, I’m not too sure why. Since its release, it’s definitely grown on me and feels a lot more cohesive with the rest of the album. My favorite part of “palm reader” is definitely the chorus (“How many versions of me write/Songs about astronauts and high beams?/Rock me back to sleep”). The song as a whole is solid, and it’s one to return to if you aren’t a huge fan on first listen.

As a whole, “New Planet Heaven” is one of my favorite albums of the year (HUNNY is now my top artists for the last six months despite the album being out for less than a month and every song from the album is in my top 20 most-listed-to songs in the past month). Even if HUNNY’s music isn’t your thing, I’m positive there’s something on the album you’ll like, so give it a listen!