It’s a consistent and, at times, deeply thoughtful record that is pleasantly familiar while offering occasional surprises. This easily stands up with the better end of Pollard’s work.
Compared to the average Pollard album, especially those under his own name, Honey Locust Honky Tonk is softer, poppier, and less given to agro attempts to ROCK.
The album packs a hefty 17-song tracklist into a relatively succinct play time. Pollard builds it in a very purposeful way—one that could sidetrack the casual listener.
On Honky Tonk, Robert Pollard is reaching new heights and depths with his songcraft
Even at his most unedited and undigested, Pollard’s music still displays a joy in its own resourcefulness, a contentment in its own faith in the power of rock and roll to define a life.
Sifting through Pollard's pop-fueled stream of consciousness hardly makes Jack a dull boy, as his acumen for the genre is almost as impressive as his productivity within it.
While this approach might not draw in many new listeners, Honey Locust Honky Tonk’s sincerity and tact will certainly be appreciated by his established legion of diehard listeners.
It definitely rides up the top half of Pollard’s solo career league tables, but if you needed convincing of the possibility of that fact, you’d never hear it in the first place.