Album Review: Hawaii's The Green reflect and speak from the heart on their stellar new album "Brand New Eyes"

Photo courtesy of Ineffable Music.

The creation of songs can originate from many places. Sometimes it's from an interaction an artist observes between strangers, and other times it's about a world the songwriter wishes would exist. Music is made with the intention of making people dance and enjoy a party, and albums have been written solely about breakups or falling in love. Perhaps the best songs are created when an artist reflects on the current state of their life and pours their heart out in the form of lyrics and music. On their sixth studio album "Brand New Eyes", Hawaii's The Green have done exactly that. A level of maturity and sober reflection rings throughout this album. The complexity of what the world can throw at our human hearts and how we handle them is not an easy thing to unpack, but throughout the songs on "Brand New Eyes" the band is able to accomplish this task as well as any honest person could. The multiple songwriters and four singers of The Green share their genuine perspective over fantastic instrumentals throughout "Brand New Eyes" and have created a record truly special.

The Green's new album begins with the track "Brand New Eyes" written by singer JP Kennedy and renowned songwriter Kimié Miner. According to JP, “Kimie is a friend of the band and the song was inspired by us becoming new parents at about the same time, but as our latest album came together, the song evolved into a whole new thing.” During lockdown, JP went to rehab, and he goes on to add, “When I was away, the band took that time to evolve so when I got out, we had a whole new foundation of what we are working from; I was blown away by that. Even though ‘Brand New Eyes’ was written years ago, it speaks to where the band is now, what centers us to achieve the same goal. The song is relevant to looking at your life and trying to make things better.” Such a subject matter on this intro song is a wonderful summary of the album as a whole.

The track features a tight groove and sophisticated vocal harmonies throughout (a perk of having four lead singers in the same band). There are catchy melodic lines executed by keys, guitar, bass, and horns, all of which can be heard clearly and is a testament to the excellent audio and mix engineering on the album.

The third song on "Brand New Eyes" is likely our favorite. Written by singer/keyboardist Ikaika Antone, he describes the inspiration of "Young Man" saying, "I wrote the song over the process of trying to conceive, beginning with our first miscarriage, then having trouble getting pregnant again, then we had another miscarriage, an 18-month span that ends with a pregnancy that we held on to...Ultimately, whatever the song will mean to people will be powerful in some way, and I hope they get the message of hope, love, and strength because those were the things that helped us to persevere during that time.”

This struggle that Ikaiki and his wife went through is becoming more and more common and is something that I am personally aware of as my spouse works in the field of fertility as an embryologist. The physical and emotional pain couples undergoing fertility issues and treatment experience are immeasurable, and to make it through both as individuals and together requires love, patience, mental fortitude, and above all hope. It is great to have this struggle highlighted in a wonderfully written song, and what is required to get through such an experience can be applied to any other issue one might face. The acoustic guitar and lead electric guitar lines help evoke the emotion of "Young Man", and the band made a wonderful decision to not make the music too busy and leave the vocals and lyrics as the focal point of the song.

While the songwriting on "Brand New Eyes" is incredible, the superb instrumentation on the record should not be overlooked. The track "Coming Home" features guitar patterns, synth choices, and percussion production on a level you would expect from a top pop album of the year. The band is able to blend reggae, pop, R&B seamlessly on "Coming Home", and once again the mix engineering is wonderful.

The song "Recipe" is a reggae jam with all of the instruments falling perfectly in the pocket. The Green show off their experience playing countless shows together and are sure to have your head bobbin' when listening to this one.

"Brand New Eyes" wraps up with the track "My Friend (Don't Give Up)", which similar to "Coming Home" has excellent drum and synth production. Dreamy reverb and delay are all over this track and end the album on a chilled high-note.

The Green surely delivered on this release, and we can't wait to see what they do next!

"Young Man" is the Daily Reggae Song of the Day.

For more music and tour dates go to www.thegreen808.com

By Chris Lawrie.

Review originally published on November 15, 2021.