There's a Honey

"There's a Honey" (written by Heather Baron-Gracie and Ciara Doran) was recorded in January 2017, and it was produced by Matty Healy and George Daniel of the 1975.[1][2][3] Healy first expressed interest in producing the single after Jamie Oborne (who managed both the 1975 and Pale Waves) played him a demo of the song (along with a demo of "Television Romance").[3] "After we hooked up with Dirty Hit we sent them [the songs]," Baron-Gracie explained in an interview with NME, "[Healy and Daniel] got in touch and were like, 'Let us just produce ['There's a Honey'] and if you like it or totally hate it you can decide what to do with it.'"[4] Doran credits Healy and Daniel with "[taking] what [Pale Waves] had and [making] it sonically bigger."[3] That said, when discussing how much of an impact Healy had on the band's sound, Baron-Gracie told NME: "I’ve seen online that a few people were giving them hate and saying they’ve changed us, but that’s just completely ridiculous. Our sound is just maturing at the end of the day."[4]

When it came time to include "There's a Honey" on the band's debut studio album, My Mind Makes Noises (2018), the members of Pale Waves decided to remix both this song and "Television Romance". "When we were listening back to [original mixes of 'There's a Honey' and 'Television Romance'] it was pretty clear that we had to re-record them," Baron-Gracie explained in a feature with Ones to Watch. "We wanted it to sound like they were all recorded at the same time in the same studio and having the [original versions] on the album just wouldn't have worked."[5] Ciara Doran and Jonathan Gilmore (the latter of whom produced the band's debut album) handled remixing duties.[1][6]

Lyrically, "There's a Honey" is, according to Baron-Gracie, "about a failed relationship, the sense of desperation, contrasting feelings and insecurities".[8] In an article announcing the song's release, Ones to Watch writer Kristin Stahlke wrote that its "heavy lyrics" detailed the possibility of "physical interaction between two people", with the singer doubting their lover's "true motives".[9] Musically, "There's a Honey" is an indie pop song[10] in the key of D major and is played at a tempo of 122 beats per minute.[11] In terms of sound and style, Baron-Gracie has described the song as being "dreamy and dark" like "something you could hear off a movie track", and "a bit [like] shoegaze but pop at the same time".[7] The song's main riff was played on a 12-string Vox Phantom guitar owned by Matty Healy.[12]

"There's a Honey" was released on 20 February 2017,[17] via digital download and streaming services in various countries by Dirty Hit.[18] While discussing the release with Coup de Main magazine, Baron-Gracie and Doran noted that they initially had planned to release a different song as their debut single. These plans were disrupted when the band recorded "There's a Honey", which they felt had "developed into something that really represented [them] as people".[19] "There's a Honey" was re-released on 10 November 2017 as a 7" double A-side single with the band's second single, "Television Romance", pressed on a limited edition white vinyl.[20] Following its release, the "Television Romance"/"There's a Honey" double A-side debuted at number 83 on the Scottish Singles Chart,[21] and at number 2 on the UK Vinyl Singles and UK Singles Sales Charts.[22][23] As of February 2023, "There's a Honey" has been streamed 25.20 million times on Spotify.[24]

"There's a Honey" received positive reviews from critics upon release. In a four-out-of-five star review, Cécile Howard of The Edge called the song "an enchanting debut" and argued that it was "eerily catchy through its chilling vocals and unique perspective on a crumbling relationship".[25] Writing for DIY, Will Richards wrote that the band's debut single was "laying down the chorus of the year so far" and that Pale Waves had "set themselves up for extremely big things".[26] Mark Sutherland, the editor of Music Week, selected the song as his personal track of 2017 and wrote that no other song from the year managed to "get close to ['There's a Honey'] in terms of sky-kissing ‘90s-style alt-rock majesty". Sutherland further wrote that the song "has the edge as the most brilliantly bristling-with-intent debut single in an age, as poppy as it is Gothy and a rare instantly-irresistible song that will stay with you forever."[27]

On April 13, 2017, Stereogum named the song one of the week's "Pop Five", hailing it as a "gem of a single."[28] On 27 November 2017, NME positioned "There's a Honey" at number 22 on their "Tracks of The Year 2017" list, describing the song as having "a bloody brilliant festival-ready chorus". The magazine further argued that the track has "a juggernaut riff [that] gets things off to a killer start and soon after, Baron-Gracie's heavenly vocals prove to cast an utterly bewitching and unbreakable spell".[29] On their Best Fifty Songs of 2017, Line of Best Fit positioned "There's a Honey" at number 24, writing that the song "jangles with the optimistic, effervescent energy of the best breed of indie-pop".[10]