Holy Hive glide into summer with Float Back to YouSalem Collo-Julinon June 29, 2020 at 1:00 pm

Holy Hive call their sound “folk-soul,” and you couldn’t ask for a better demonstration of what that term means than the Brooklyn trio’s debut album, Float Back to You. Auspiciously released over Memorial Day weekend–the traditional kickoff to the summer season–this ethereal record blends the folky falsetto vocals of Paul Spring with deep shades of beachy 60s soul courtesy the funk skills of drummer Homer Steinweiss. Spring is a singer-songwriter with a 2013 children’s album under his belt, while Steinweiss is a former member of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and a longtime session musician (that’s him on the annoyingly catchy Bruno Mars song “24K Magic”). After Spring and Steinweiss met at a family reunion–their girlfriends happened to be cousins–they started jamming together, homing in on the common ground between their seemingly disparate sonic worlds. The songs on Float Back to You are mostly variations on the same lazy-day theme, and though some of them run together on repeat listenings, the tight, soul-influenced rhythms of Steinweiss and bassist Joe Harrison consistently ground Spring’s upper-register singing. Among the more memorable cuts is “Oh I Miss Her So,” which features masterful cameos from harpist Mary Lattimore, whose strumming dances with Spring’s melody, and Roots trumpeter Dave Guy, who adds a solo on the bridge. The song makes me think of driving by the lake with someone special on a starlit summer night, so I guess Holy Hive’s magic is working on me. v

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