Two years have passed since Gothenburg-based band Pale Honey (Tuva Lodmark and Nelly Daltrey) released their critically acclaimed, self titled debut album. This year the band will release their second full length album Devotion, a record of real honest and maturity.

It is no doubt that Devotion was named thematically. Written and recorded together with producer Anders Lagerfors at the legendary Nacksving Studios in Gothenburg, the album offers a snapshot into the changing shape of Pale Honey. Though their sound may be maturing and growing more ambitious, for this album they returned to the process that served them so well as songwriters while they penned their debut. They say the number one motivation was to stay curious about music and try new things; “We didn’t record our debut album knowing what we were doing – we were new to our instruments at that time, and so writing for Devotion was a bit like that. We’ve recorded ideas on instruments we don’t usually play.”

The band have also sought to make Devotion more of a curated experience to its predecessor; “Our debut album included songs that we wrote as teenagers and settled for anything that sounded good. For Devotion, we became extremely picky and left out a lot of songs that are good, but just didn’t fit in together or didn’t feel good enough. It has taken it’s time, two years of touring and writing but we’ve also had some time apart to be able to let ideas come in more environments than in the rehearsal room or studio. As we have pushed ourselves, we have become more confident in what we’re doing and what we like and don’t regarding our music.”

What shines through about Devotion, thematically, is its dealing with relationships on their many different levels, all the way down to the relationship with one’s self. In this way they’ve said the album has been quite therapeutic, and nowhere else on the album is this clearer than on the single track Get These Things Out of My Head. Amongst a swath of distorted guitars and menacing synths are lyrics that deal with singer / guitarist Tuva Lodmark’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, something she has suffered with since her teenage years; “For me, this is very personal to talk about. I even wanted to change the lyrics for the song to be about something else before we recorded the vocals, I was so afraid of what other people would know about me. But after I gave it some thought, why would I censor myself that way? We make music because it’s true. We write to deal with ourselves and things that happen around us. This condition I’ve been in is a big part of me and I want to be true to myself and shed some light on the disease. It’s more common than people think.”

Over ten tracks, Devotion proves itself to be a deeply personal album to really get lost in. Listen on Spotify.

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